2661) "Spa", Belgium: The Great Spa Towns of Europe Stamp Series: Bpost (Belgium Post) has issued a set of five stamps featuring the Spa town whose name has become eponymous with any place having a natural water source that is believed to possess special health-giving properties: Date of Stamp set issue: 23.01.2023:
About Great Spa Towns of Europe - "Spa":
In 2021 Spa was officially recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Spa is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties.
The term Spa has since become eponymous with any place having a natural water source that is believed to possess special health-giving properties, known as a "spa".
It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountains 35 km (22 mi) south-east of Liège and 45 km (28 mi) south-west of Aachen, over an area of about 39.85 km2 (15.39 sq mi.
A popular destination:
Spa is one of Belgium's most popular tourist destinations, being renowned for its natural mineral springs and production of "Spa" mineral water, which is exported worldwide.
The motor-racing Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, just south of the nearby village of Francorchamps, also hosts the annual Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and various endurance races such as the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
The world's first beauty pageant, the Concours de Beauté, was held in Spa on 19.09.1888. The town also hosted the Tour de France on 5 July 2010, when stage 2 of the race ended there.
In 2021, Spa became part of the transnational "UNESCO World Heritage Site" under the name "Great Spa Towns of Europe", inscribed for its famous mineral springs and its architectural testimony to the rise of European bathing culture in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Many of the famous mineral springs in Spa are located on a hillside south of the town.
In all, there are more than 300 cold mineral springs in Spa and its surroundings, classified into two types - light mineral waters and natural sparkling waters (called 'pouhons' locally).
The light mineral waters come from recent rainfall on the Malchamps Moor, roughly 4 km (2.5 mi) south-west of the town and are filtered through layers of peat, quartz, and phyllite.
In contrast, the pouhon waters come from rainfall that may be decades old, having percolated through calcareous rocks hundreds of meters underground.
As the site of cold springs with the supposedly healing properties, Spa has been frequented as a "water-taking" place since classical antiquity.
Pliny the Elder (died 79 CE) noted, "In Tongrie, country of Gaul, there is a famous source, whose water, while sparkling bubbles, a ferruginous taste that is, however, feel that when we finished drinking. This water purges the body, cures fevers and dispels calculous affections." (C lib. XXXI VIII).
The Spa town grew in the Middle Ages, in the oldest iron and steel centre of Liège Province.
The Spa was created around 1335 and included two urban concentrations - vilhe of Creppe and vilhe Spas, 2 km (1.2 mi) away.
During World War I, Spa operated as an important German convalescent hospital town between 1914 and 1917. The general headquarters of Kaiser Wilhelm II was Spa, in 1918, the last place where he resided before his abdication due to the German surrender.
In July 1920, the town hosted the Spa Conference, a meeting of the Supreme Council. German delegates were invited to this to discuss war reparations.
World War II saw Spa reoccupied by the Germans, but the town escaped the Battle of the Bulge in 1945 that stopped, luckily for Spa, just at its gates.
The Marshall Plan helped Belgium to recover quickly. In the 1950s and 1960s, mass tourism gradually developed, diminishing Spa's reliance on the elite as customers.
The 1980s and 1990s saw the beginning of an infrastructure renewal and Spa radiation.
In 1994, a new French song festival started - the "Francofolies".
In 1997, the area of Spa-Bérinzenne opened the Regional Center for Initiation to the Environment, one of whose specialties is water, etc.
The Stamp set:
The individual Stamps:
Posts on SEPAC issues on this blog:
Posts on Finland on this Blog:
Posts on Sweden:
Dutch Castles Coin Series:
Links:
The undernoted two links will take you to our blog "Footloose" for two interesting posts written by me on the Dutch presence in Sadras in the 17th Century AD:
5) City of Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium: 20 Years as UNENCO World Heritage Site: A 20 Euro Silver Proof Coin issued by the Royakl Dutch Mint under licencing of the Royal Belgian Mint, on behalf of the National Bank of Belgium: Coin issue date: 26.02.2020
6) 100 Years of Nature & Environment Protection, Luxembourg: Commemorating the Centenary Anniversary of the "Letzebuerger Natur a Vulleschutsliga a.s.b.l. (Luxembourg Nature and Bird Protection Society):A 0.80 Euro Stamp issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Date of stamp issue: 10.03.2020
7) Celebrating 25 Years of listing on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Luxembourg: A Commemorative Stamp of 0.80 Euro issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Stamp issue date: 10.03.2020
15) "Franking Labels" from Greenland: Franking Labels issued by POST Greenland Filatelia since 2009 onwards: A brief analysis
16) Ancient Postal Routes - the Postal Boat Race - between Aland and Sweden", Aland, Finland: A EUROPA Postage Stamp of 2.00 Euro issued by Aland Post: Date of Stamp issue: 08.05.2020
For interesting posts from the Caribbean Netherlands on this blog:
For other interesting posts on issues from the Royal Dutch Mint, Netherlands and PostNL, please visit the following links:
9) "De Haar Castle", Utrecht, Netherlands: The first Coin to be released in the "Dutch Castles" Coin Series: A silver Ducat Trade Coin with a history spanning over 350 years, minted by the Royal Dutch Mint: Date/Year of Delivery: 04/2020
10) First Atlases, Netherlands: Commemorating 450 Years of the first Atlas (1570-2020) & others: A Stamp Sheet of six stamps depicting the Atlases which were compiled in the Netherlands in the 16th & 17th Centuries AD: Stamp Set issued by POstNL: Date of Stamp Set issue: 23.03.2020
12) 75th Anniversary of the United Nations Organisation (UNO), The Netherlands: A Coin-card set of three denominations of 0.50 Euros, 0.20 Euros and 0.05 Euros minted by the Royal Dutch Mint to celebrate the milestone: Year of Coin-card issue: 2020
Rajan Trikha has commented:
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DeleteSantosh Khanna has commented:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for sharing this interesting post."
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