Bistriţa Monastery (Vâlcea County, Romania) maximum cards. Mihnea the Bad (Voivode) tore it down, and the 1838 earthquake (act of God, eh?) left it in ruins. But this house of God was rebuilt. Orthodoxism means "correctly believing"; then again, every religion and sect indulges in the belief that it is, itself, "the right way to believe"

http://www.romanian-monasteries.go.ro/valcea/bistritav.htm

"The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church ^{[note 1]} and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church,^[4] considers itself to be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years ago. 

Orthodoxy is the second largest Christian communion in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents."

The Eastern rites want you to "make no mistake" by confusing the Orthodox Catholic Church with the Roman Catholic Church.

"The Orthodox Church considers itself to be both orthodox and catholic. In earlier and patristic usage, the Church usually referred to herself as the "Catholic Church"^[1][2] whose faith was the "Orthodox faith". 

Such usage is still reflected today in the Orthodox liturgy, e.g. "unite them to your Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" (from the litany of the catechumens, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom). 

Current convention however, favors the name "Orthodox Church", perhaps partly to avoid confusion with the Roman Catholic Church, especially its Eastern rites. "

The interior of an Eastern Orthodox Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orthodox-Church-interior.jpg

Simonos Petras Monastery, Athos, Greece

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simonos_petras_1.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodoxism

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Butterflies and moths on stamps from my collection, Part 1: Mongolia, Togo (awesome!), Lesotho, Kenya, Dubai, Maldives, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Australia and New Zealand

Happy Sunday Stamps meme!

Please visit: http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

Isn't a beautiful pink (sort of) the most appropriate background color for a stamp with a BEAST like the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)? Romanian maxicard showing a DIORAMA. The first one, by Akeley, showed TAXIDERMIED BEAVERS. Don't try this at home! Zoological expertise is necessary

"Full size dioramas

A diorama in the Museum of Natural history in Milan (Italy).

Modern museum dioramas may be seen in most major natural history museums. Typically, these displays use a tilted plane to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporate a painted background of distant objects, and often employ false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce the illusion through depth perception in which objects of identical real-world size placed farther from the observer appear smaller than those closer. Often the distant painted background or sky will be painted upon a continuous curved surface so that the viewer is not distracted by corners, seams, or edges. All of these techniques are means of presenting a realistic view of a large scene in a compact space. A photograph or single-eye view of such a diorama can be especially convincing since in this case there is no distraction by the binocular perception of depth.

Carl Akeley, a naturalist, sculptor, and taxidermist, is credited with creating the first ever habitat diorama in 1889. Akeley's diorama featured taxidermied beavers in a three-dimensional habitat with a realistic, painted background."  

[MY NOTE:  Are you contemplating the idea of creating your own DIORAMA with TAXIDERMIED BEAVERS, or BOARS, or what-have-you? Don't try this at home! Zoological expertise is necessary!]

"With the support of curator Frank M. Chapman, Akeley designed the popular habitat dioramas featured at the American Museum of Natural History. Combining art with science, these exhibitions were intended to educate the public about the growing need for habitat conservation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diorama

Probably the first museum in the world to display more than 1 diorama, and to perfect the process further:
http://www.antipa.ro/stiati_ca_1.php

Can you access this virtual tour? If not, check again those few radio buttons, and gain access!

http://www.antipa.ro/ptur.php

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Happy Pink Saturday! (still open on Sunday!)

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

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