Today I've received a card from Luxembourg, as a thanking way for participation in a
birthday project.
Castle and fortress are one of my favorites. And
Bockfiels is no exception to the rule.
The fortress acquired the historical epithet of "Gibraltar of the North" as a result of its apparent impregnability. In 1795, when the city surrendered after a 7-month blockade and siege by the French, with its walls still unbreached, the French politician and engineer Lazare Carnot declared Luxembourg "the best [fortress] in the world, apart from Gibraltar". But in 1867 the
Treaty of London required Luxembourg's fortress to be demolish and the city to be placed in perpetual neutrality.
The demolition of the fortress, with its
casemates, batteries, barracks, and so on, took
16 years, from 1867 to 1883, and cost 1,5 million francs. The process was somewhat chaotic: often parts of the fortress were simply blown up, the usable materials carried off by local residents, and the rest was covered up with earth.
In 1994 the old remains of fortifications and the city have been classed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
About the stamp... Well it's more like a sticker with a half-QR code and the text "port payé 50g valide jusq'au 08/08/15". Beside postal mark there is another one with "Western Union money transfer" on it. Probably a way of advertising connected postal services.
Country: Luxembourg
Description: Bock casemates
Photo: Editions Gropalux
Location:
here
