COVER N. 623 - SLOVAKIA  

Postmark: Trnavá Hora 96611 - 29.07.2025

Posted on the 29th July; Received on the 5th August 2025

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Clearly, the weather interfered at some point along the way.... and somehow it is a fitting tribute, for 100 years ago, the pilots in open cockpit aircraft also had to withstand the rigours of weather and irrespective of rain or shine, what really mattered was to reach one's destination... same as it happened with the cover that Michal so kindly sent me.  Ďakujem, Michal.

The first commercial flight between Prague and Košice, via Bratislava, in what was then Czechoslovakia, took place on the  5th may 1924.

Surely, the feat bears no comparison with today's era of aircraft belching thousands upon thousands or passengers on ever crowded terminals, for the single-engine Aero A.14 biplane (a modified version of the WW1 vintage German Hansa Brandenburg CI) of  CSA-Československé Statni Aerolinie carried but one single passenger  sitting behind the pilot in the open cockpit, cruising at the fantastic maximum speed of 170 km/h.

By way of comparison, in 2023 Košice airport handled a total of 625,053 passengers, with solid growth prospects for this relevant regional hub.

To mark the centenary of  this important milestone in the history of Slovak civil aviation, Slovenská pošta issued on 03MAY2024  the 2,70 € stamp that Michal used on the cover, featuring an illustration of the Aero A.14 flying over a contemporary map of Czechoslovakia, with the flight route superimposed on it.

Incidentally, the photograph on which the aircraft image was based can be found on the internet, on Wikipedia, and I can't resist reproducing it here:

Source: Aero A.14 – Wikipédia

The postmark on the neatly addressed and laid out  envelope was applied at Trnavá Hora, a 1.2 thousand inhabitants town in central Slovakia.

COVER N. 331 - SLOVAKIA

Postmark: Trnava Hora 96611  05.10.2023

Posted on the 5th October; received on the 11th October 2023

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The first thing that stroke me when looking at this cover was the realisation of how far Slavic languages are from the Latin roots of mine.

Trieda class... If not for the  numeral 1 right alongside the legend, thought I, one  would think that the sticker meant third class (whatever that may mean) by simple association of the word trieda to the way three is spelled in latin languages três, trois, three (drei, I know, but here it comes from the German...)...

Well nothing could be more far off from the truth. Not only "Three" in Slovak is... "Tri", but  also "Trieda" is the Slovak for ... you guessed it... "Class".

So what the sticker really means is 1st Class.  How easy our  unconscious associations can lead us to trouble.....

Anyway, Thanks a lot Michal. not only the stamps are nice, but I learned something from the sticker too 

 😀

 On to the stamps:

The one on the left with a face value of 1.40€ was issued on 19MAY2023, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Express Stagecoach Service between Bratislava and Vienna, which I'd presume was ensured in a stagecoach just like the one in the photograph that illustrates the stamp.

The 0,20€ stamp is part of a three stamp definitive set, issued on 04JAN2021, themed on glasswork.

It is illustrated with a photo of a Golden Suzana wine glass, designed by glass artist Jozef Staník in the 60s of last century.

The Postmark hails from Trnavá Hora, in central Slovakia.

COVER N. 319 - SLOVAKIA

Postmark: Martin Činovský  Magister čiar - Banská Bystrica 1 20.07.2023 / 96611 Trnavá Hora 19.09.2023

Posted on the 19th September; received on the 24th September 2023

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Engravers... in their eyes, hands and tools, all equally sharp, lies the responsibility of transferring into the tiny surface of a stamp a work of art.

A singular - in both acceptions of the word - job, calling on concentration, talent and  skill, in order to perform, much like a surgeon does on our bodies,  delicate operations on a sheet of metal, so that we can later enjoy the beauty of  a mirrored image finally printed onto a little piece of paper, so humble that we aren't even afraid of considering it disrespectful to lick its back and paste it onto an envelope.

Often they are also illustrators, painters, graphic artists. But most of all their are  Masters of Lines, Magisteri čiar, in Slovak. 

Much like Martin Činovský, to whom the exhibition thus entitled that ran in Banská Bystrica from 20.7 to the day before yesterday, the past 26th, was dedicated, and whose commemorative postmark features on the cover, for which I heartedly thank Michal.

Martin Činovský was born in 1953 in Levoča, in what was then Czechoslovakia and is now Slovakia. Educated in arts in his home country, he further pursued his studies in France at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where he specialised in stamp design.

His were the first Slovak stamps after the independence of the country, as well as a further 150 stamps he produced, either as the stamp designer or engraver or both, over the following years unto the present. The outstanding quality of his work is well acknowledged internationally and in 2011, one of his engraving works  - the miniature sheet celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Žilina Synod, issued in 2010 - was considered to be the most beautiful European stamp of the year.

 I, being new to the hobby, was not aware of his name or of his work, but the quality of engraved Slovak stamps is something that has caught my eye a number of times...

The two stamps on the cover, though, are not produced from engraved masters, but are either offset (on the left corner), or offset and serigraphed (on the the right corner).

Left:

As well as a gifted painter, Peter Michal Bohúň (1822 – 1879) was an ardent defender of Slovak autonomy, as proved by his active participation in the Slovak uprising of 1848, which aimed at improving the national standing of Slovaks within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

As an artist he would become known for portrait works, although he also painted landscapes and religious scenes, such as the one from which the detail on the stamp issued by Slovak Post in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth was taken, and transferred to a 0,65€ stamp, issued on my own birthday :-) 04MAR2022. 

Right:

Hiking as an organised sport in Slovakia goes back to the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Hungarian Carpathian Association (UKS) was founded in Kežmarok (Slovakia). on 8th August 1873.

Its present day successor, The Slovak Tourist Club, carries on the flag of promoting Hiking, either by forming instructors of by representing the interests of hikers or by establishing and marking new hiking itineraries.

The 150th Anniversary of Organised Hiking Trips in Slovakia was celebrated by the Slovak Post with a T2 tariff (0,90 €) stamp issued on 14JUL2023, illustrated with a classic image of a Hiking route marking on the trunk of a tree.

The regular postmark on the cover was issued at Trnavá Hora, a town in the Banská Bystrica in the centre-west of Slovakia.

COVER N.156 -  SLOVAKIA

Postmark: FDC 1.1.2000 / Bratislava 5 16.08.22
Posted on 16th August; received on the 22th August 2022
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A First Day Cover from Slovakia, updated with more recent stamps for expedition. Nice! Thank you so much, Venco!

The first set of stamps issued by Slovakia on the very first day of the new century - 01JAN2000 -  was a se-tenant pair, with face values of 10 and 12 Slovak Koruna, dedicated to the "Splendours of our Homeland".

The 10 Sk stamp on my cover depicts the Dunajec River Gorge in the Pieniny Mountains, which constitutes a natural border between Poland and Slovakia, and is famous for the wooden raft descents that take place daily. This fact is highlighted in the stamp that features a view of the gourge with a wooden raft navigating the waters and the legend Prielom Dunajaca (Dunajec River Gorge). 

The stamp is cancelled with a postmark that features a view of the city of Červený Kláštor, wherein the administration of the Pieniny National Park, where the Dunajec river gorge is located, has its headquarters.

To post this interesting FDC to me, Venco used two more recent stamps:

1 Euro stamp, issued on 30MAR2020 honouring the  200th Anniversary of the birth of Andrej Sládkovič, (1820-1872) who, according to wikipedia, was a poet, critic, publicist, translator and Lutheran priest.

T1 100g (Domestic up to 100g) stamp, part of a two stamp set with the same denomination issued on 09OCT2008, dedicated to wooden churches as part of the "Beauties of our Homeland” series.  Of note is the fact that these stamps were issued as part of a minisheet, which contained two perforated rows, each with the two stamps and a label between them also featuring the image on a wooden church.

As usual with Slovak stamps the designs are wonderful and I especially like the wooden church drawing. 

The regular Postmark on the two "operative" stamps tells us that the cover was mailled from the country's capital, Bratislava.

 COVER N.54 - Slovakia

Postmark: Bratislava
Posted on the 15th November; received on the 23rd November
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Within days of receiving a cover from Slovakia, I got another one. As the portuguese saying goes, "there's no hunger that doesn't become abundance".  Thanks so much for the nice cover Venco. 

 

The 0,95€ stamp was issued on Stamp day - 03DEC2018 - and it celebrates the first Czechoslovak stamp ever issued, that is reproduced on the stamp. A se-tenant vignette is illustrated with the picture of the designer of the first stamp, Alfons Mucha.

The Tariff 1, 50g stamp was issued on 04APR2019 and it celebrates the 75th anniversary of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The aircraft depicted on the stamp is a Caproni Ca.3, a bomber used in the first world war by the Italian Army. The plane was that on which  General Milan Rastislav Stefanik flew to his death on a crash close to the airfield of Bratislava where he was about to land after departing from Italy.

Other than aviator Milan Rastislav Stefanik was also an astronomer, a skill that would take him to France eventually to obtain French citizenship in 1902 and an active participation in the First World War, fueled by the belief that the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a member of the triple alliance with Germany and Italy, would lead the way to an independent Czechoslovakia.

This objective t was fully achieved  as a result of the efforts and action of the Czechoslovak National Council created by  Tomáš Masaryk, Edvard Beneš  and Milan Stefanik, when, on the 28th October 1918, a fortnight before the end of the hostilities of the War to end all wars, Czechoslovakia became independent, although still within the Austgro-Hungarian Empire.

COVER N.53 - Slovakia

Postmark: Illegible
Posted on (?); received on the 17th November
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My second received mail ever from Slovakia. More than aything else, I'm having a lot of fun with this new hobby of mine. It really feels good to open the letterbox not knowing if there's anything new inside and if yes where from...

A full seven months have passed since I started this blog and in the meantime I have already received mail from 37 different stamp emitting countries/entities.  that's encouraging, to say the very least.

Yesterday another large envelope full of goodies greeted me, upon opening the letterbox. Tank you so much Venco!

The Tariff 2 stamp, although not mentioning it, is presumably one of  the 2020's Christmas stamp emissions of the Slovak Post (Slovenská pošta), issued on 13NOV2020. The illustration depicts a textile snow flake pattern and the stamp layout mirrors that of another stamp dedicated to traditional textile designs issued on 13MAR20. The stamp was also issued in self-adhesive format.

The 1,10€ stamp is the 2018 EUROPA stamp issued on 04MAY2018. Citing Post Europe site, the stamp depicts "the Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) over the Danube River in Bratislava (.It) joins the city centre with the newly built housing complex of Petržalka. It was created by architects Jozef Lacko, Ladislav Kušnír, Ivan Slameň and a stress analyst, Arpád Tesár, from the Slovak University of Technology, and built between years 1967 and 1972.

Again,  a stamp take me on a trip down memory lane, and i ahd to go over to my photoalbum to recall my visit to Bratislava and the picture I took of this same bridge....

POSTCARD N.40 -  Slovakia

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 27th October; received on the 3rd November
Postcard image: Oravský Podzámok
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An so the list keeps on growing. This time with an addition from Slovakia, in the form of a postcard with a view from Oravsky Podzámok, a village in the Centre North of the country, not far from the Polish Border. 

Its main point of historical interest is seems is the Orava Castle that sits atop a cliff overlooking the village, as can be grasped from the view on the postcard that Slavo sent me. Thanks a lot Slávo!

Stamps, left to right; top to bottom:

The 0,65€ Stamp, comemorative of Stamp day 1995 and issued on 04DEC2015, is illustrated with a very nice rendition of the interior of Bratislava main Post Office. Of note is the fact that this stamp exists with 2 different vignettes attached, both showing images of the exterior of the post office.

The 0,40€ stamp, issued on 01JUL2011, is part of a two stamp set dedicated to vintage cars from former Czechoslovakia: the companion to the Aero 30 depicted on the stamp on the card was the famous aerodynamic Tatra 87, illustrated on the 0,80 stamp.

The Aero 30 was manufactured by a subsidiary of the the still existing Aero aircraft manufacturing company, founded in 1919. who produced cars between 1929 and 1951.

The 0,05€ and 0,10€ stamps are part of a 8 stamp definitive set issued on 02JAN2009, (0,01; 0,02; 0,05; 0,10; 0,20; 0,50; 1,00 and 2,00€) featuring highlights from the Cultural Heritage of Slovakia. The 0,05 € Stamp depicts the Rotunda of St. Margaret in Šivetice while the face of the 0,10€ stamp,  is taken by an image of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Sedmerovec - Pominovce.