Walls And Fortresses

Porta Nigra, the Black Portal, of Trier is one of the most well-known Roman structures of Germany. It was built during the same time period as the Aurelian walls of Rome, but never entirely finished. The rough-hewn rock has weathered to almost black. charity stamp of 1940

After the war Trier was within the French Zone. France printed stamps with a PF denomination, Reichsmark (1947); this changed to D.PF (Deutsche Mark) denomination in 1948.

In 1984 Trier celebrated the founding of the city 2000 years earlier. The Porta Nigra in modern design. The portal was known in Roman times as The Portal of Mars. It became a UNESCO cultural site in 1986.

The Porta Nigra is part of the large definitive series, 'Sehenswürdigkeiten', places to visit, begun in 2000 with the € and lasting till 2004. View of the city side of the portal.

amazing view of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin from the new bridge in the park Zaryadye

Narva's Herman castle, on the Estonian Eastern border, facing the Russian Ivangorod castle across Narva river.

walls of the fortress in Ivangorod

Great Britain (Royal Mail)
7th July 2016
Pink Floyd

"The Wall" (on tour 1981) - not all walls are tangible….




No apologies for tenuous connection to topic, as I am a Floyd fan!

Great Britain/Australia
21st April 2005
World Heritage Sites (Joint Issue)

Hadrian's Wall




(stamps are same size, but were scanned at different times, resolutions)

The Ivangorod castle is truly impressive. I saw it, from Estonia, in August 2011.
On the same tryp (actually, the very same day!) I saw also the small (but, nice)tower-castle of Kiiu, about half way beteween Tallinn and Narva (Northeastern Estonia).

Maiden Castle in Dorset is one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hill forts in Europe. Its huge multiple ramparts, mostly built in the 1st century BC, once protected hundreds of residents, but were overcome by the Romans. Excavations have revealed a Neolithic enclosure from about 3500 BC. The stamp shows a sketch of a port tower with the timber wall superimposed on a steep rampart.

(Great new additions!)

The Great Sea Gate in Tallinn was built on the orders of the Danish queen Margarita in the 13th century. The Gun Tower Thick Margaret was built in the 16th century by Livonian knights.

The ancient walls of Mycene were built over a period of hundreds of years in several different masonry styles. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization, a stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece and further to areas now Turkey. The Lion Gate is the most famous site in the archeological complex. Some of the rocks used in the walls are simply huge - how were they quarried and brought into that hilly countryside?

Greece honored Heinrich Schliemann, the German lay archeologist, for his many years of work at Mycene during which he discovered several ancient treasures. An areal view of the central part of the site which can be visited.

Nakijin Castle, on the west coast of the Ryukyu island of Okinawa, is a complex which was built in the late 13th century and served as the castle of the Hokuzan king until it was taken over by the Chuzan. The massive walls are dry walls of limestone rocks, intricately placed, probably making the walls less likely to break apart during an earthquake. Cherry trees blossom on Okinawa before they do on the big islands further north.