New stamps - March 21 and 23

New stamps - March 21 and 23 Visby and Birka World Heritage sites Stockholm 750 years old The Swedish Postal Service's new stamps are both a voyage through Swedish cultural history and a visit to popular tourist attractions of today. They depict Birka, the city of the Vikings and Visby, the medieval Hanseatic League town, and commemorate the 750th anniversary of the founding of Stockholm. The four stamps to be issued in March feature art and cultural landmarks from several periods, from the Viking Era, through the Middle Ages to contemporary art. The Swedish World Heritage sites stamp series continues with depictions of the medieval city of Visby and Birka, once the Vikings' main center of trade. This summer, Stockholm is celebrating its 750th anniversary. The Postal Service honors our capital city with two stamps featuring the Vädersolstavlan, the oldest known portrait of Stockholm. This painting, hanging in Storkyrkan, the cathedral in Stockholm's Old Town, has its own fascinating story to tell. There will be a special festival week from June 1-8, packed with exciting events. The fourth stamp will feature sculpture in the Kingdom of Stone area around Kristianstad in Southern Sweden, a Mecca for many artists who are attracted by the black stone, diabase, and other types of granite. One of these artists is Takashi Naraha of Japan. His sculpture in gray granite is the subject of one of the stamps. Attached: Background facts about the stamps to be issued in March by the Swedish Postal Service. Press photographs of the stamps For additional information and information in digital form, please contact: Åsa Ivarsson, Information Manager, Phone +46 (0=8-781 54 96, mobile +46 (0)70-980 51 41, e-mail: asa.ivarsson@pf.posten.se Ingrid Eriksson, Information Manager, Phone +46 (0=8-781 54 41, mobile +46 (0)70-980 06 96, e-mail: ingrid.eriksson@pf.posten.se The Postal Service (Posten) provides fast, reliable and cost-effective delivery of messages and goods, and creates additional value for our customers by combining the physical and electronic flows, integrated Posten's services with our customers' businesses. In short, we are experts on everything between "here and there." With over 3000 service centers, we provide daily service to 4.1 million households and 500,000 businesses in Sweden. Every day, we handle over 20 million mailed items. Our staff of approximately 50,000 and sales volume of almost 25 billion SEK make us one of the largest group of companies in Sweden. Our parent company is Posten AB (publ), which is owned by the Swedish government. Please visit our website at www.posten.se. Swedish Stamps in March 2002 21 March World Heritage 2 Sweden has eleven properties on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which Sweden has promised to care for and preserve. Last year Sweden Post started a stamp series with motifs from the Swedish World Heritage properties. Now it continues with the towns of Visby and Birka. Visby - World Heritage 2 Visby was put on the World Heritage list in 1995 as an example of a walled-in Hanseatic town in Northern Europe. It is one of the few remaining towns from the heyday of the Hanseatic League in the 12th to 15th centuries, when Visby was a flourishing trading centre. Both Swedish and Eastern European goods were sold and reloaded here for the European market. German merchants settled here and built trading and warehouses. The four stamp motifs feature: A view of the town with the Almedalen in the foreground and the cathedral in the background. Parts of the ring wall, the 3.6 km long stone wall around the town. The Burmeister building, built by a German merchant. A view of the big square with the beautiful gothic arches of the Saint Catherine church. The stamps were designed by Eva Ede after photos taken by Tommy Söderlund and Christina Jägerbäck. Piotr Naszarkowski engraved two of the stamps. They are printed by combination print, one-colour recess and four-colour offset. The other two are printed by four-colour offset. They are issued together in a booklet of four stamps and as many motifs. The stamps are valid for domestic letters. Birka - World Heritage 2 On the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren the Swedish king established the town of Birka in the mid-8th century and it became a Viking trading centre. From his royal domain, the Hovgården, on the nearby Adelsö island, the king kept order in the town and protected it from ravage and plunder. The many ancient remains gave Birka and Hovgården status as World Heritage Properties in 1993. The stamps show two pendants with a man's face and a cross found in Birka. A third stamps shows a runic stone by the Hovgården on the Adelsö island. Eva Ede made the graphic design after photos from RAÄ; Jan Eve Olsson and Harald Faith-Ell/ATA. Czeslaw Slania and Lars Sjööblom engraved the stamps. They are printed by one-colour recess, each stamp with its own colour. The values are for domestic letters for the pendant with the man's face, domestic economy mail for the runic stone, and domestic mail for non-profit societies for the pendant with the cross. All three are issued in coils. Stockholm - 750 Years Stockholm will be 750 years old in the summer of 2002. In 1252 Stockholm was first mentioned in writing. Birger Jarl Magnusson, considered the founder of Stockholm, issued two letters dated in Stockholm that year. Sweden Post honours the anniversary with two stamps. They feature the oldest known picture of Stockholm, the sun-halo picture in the Cathedral in the Old Town in Stockholm. It was painted after a weather phenomenon 20 April 1535, when a sun-halo, a celestial phenomenon, appeared over the town. The picture shows Stockholm seen from Lake Mälaren. The palace Three Crowns and the Cathedral dominate the housing on the tiny island. Lars Sjööblom designed and engraved the stamps. They are printed by recess. One is for domestic letters, the other has the value 10 Kr, postage for abroad. Both are issued in coils. 23 March Sculptures in Kristianstad - Norden 2002 Sweden Post Stamps is issuing two stamps on the theme Sculptures around Kristianstad in the province of Scania - this year's Norden stamps. Kristianstad is one of the towns with the most sculptures in Sweden. It has many interesting works displayed both in the town and outside it. Diabase, the hard, black rock found in the region was formed a billion years ago and is world-famous. When it is polished it is shiny and deep black and very suitable for sculptures, monuments, façades etc. The stone sculpture Structure in grey granite by the artist Takashi Naraha (born in 1930) is in Kristianstad. He emigrated from Japan to Sweden in 1974 for the sake of the stone. In the Wanås sculpture park we find the Swedish artist Pål Svensson's Sprung From. It is one of many installations in the English park where sculptures have been placed since 1987. The photos of the sculptures were taken by Christina Jägerbäck and Stefan Fallgren. The graphic design is by Olöf Baldursdottir. The stamps are printed by combination print, one-colour recess and four-colour offset. They are sold in coils and the value is 8 Kr, letter postage for Europe. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/03/15/20020315BIT00740/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/03/15/20020315BIT00740/wkr0002.pdf