IT'S NOT JUST A HOBBY


Friday, March 18, 2011

Estonia - Coat of Arms 2005


East-Viru County
Price: 0.28
Date: 08 March 2005
Print: offset
Designer: Lembit Lõhmus
Sheets: 5 marki/ stamps
Quantity issued: 1 000 000
Printing house: Cartor Security Printing/ France

Ida-Virumaa (Estonia’s East-Viru County) lies on Europe’s eastern border - the right bank of the Narva already belongs to Russia. From north to south, the county takes up the area between the high southern coast of the Gulf of Finland and the sandy beaches along the northern bank of Lake Peipsi. The western part of the county is covered with large forests and bogs. The most magnificent sight is the limestone bluff that rises to 56 meters above sea level at Ontika and boasts a rare strip of primeval forest between it and the sea. Near Valaste Estonia’s highest, 25.6 metre Valaste Waterfall drops down from the escarpment. The biggest conglomeration of lakes in Estonia, with forty of them scattered over an area of just 30 sq km, also lies in Ida-Virumaa. The county, with a population of amount 180,000 in a territory of 3,364 sq km, is a foremost industrial area yielding more than 14 percent of Estonia’s gross domestic product. Investors have discovered opportunities and advantages of this controversial county and their investments into business, real estate and infrastructure in the area have been growing from year to year. Completion of a port in Sillamäe will give the county an additional thrust for operating as a transit corridor as well as a tourist destination.

Järva County
Price: 0.28
Date: 15 March 2005
Print: offset
Designer: Lembit Lõhmus
Sheets: 5 x 5
Quantity issued: 1 000 000
Printing house: Cartor Security Printing/ France

Järvamaa is a historical county in central Estonia. Settlement acquired a permanent nature since the 13th century when German knights established a foothold in Paide. In 1265 an Order castle with an octagonal 30-meter corner tower, Pikk Hermann, was erected there in 1265. Even today the tower is the main device on the coat-of-arms of both Järva County and the county government seat, Paide. With a territory of 2,700 sq km, Järvamaa is one of the smallest Estonian counties. More than half the present population of 39,000 live in rural areas. As of 1 January 2005 Paide had 9,606 and Türi 6,558 inhabitants. The county has numerous sources and bogs, serving as an important freshwater deposit for northern Estonia. Nature reserves of various categories cover more than half the territory. Järva County boasts a number of old architectural monuments. There are several Gothic churches dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, as well as a number of stately manor halls, most of them built in the 18th and 19th centuries. The condition of those manors where schools were set up after the nationalisation of manors in the early 20th century is the best. The county also has several museums, the oldest of them being the 1905-established Järva County Museum that has a branch in the Paide Vallitorn (the restored Pikk Hermann). Imavere has the Estonian Dairy Museum, Türi a Broadcasting Museum, Järva-Jaani a Firefighting Museum and the village of Vetepere in the Albu rural municipality the museum of the novelist Anton Hansen-Tammsaare on a late 19th century farm.

Jõgeva County
Price: 0.28
Date: 05 July 2005
Print: offset
Designer: Lembit Lõhmus
Sheets: 5 x 5
Quantity issued: 1 000 000
Printing house: Cartor Security Printing/ France

Jõgeva County lies in central and eastern Estonia, being open and accessible to people coming from anywhere in Estonia. The county stretches 75 kilometres from east to west and 45 kilometres from north to south. The western boundary of the county runs along the upper reaches of the Navesti, while the eastern boundary follows the shore of Lake Peipsi, extending thirty kilometres from Tiirikoja to Kodavere. Historically and culturally Jõgeva County can be divided into three diverse areas – Põltsamaa, Vooremaa and the Lake Peipsi rim. The landscape is varied, with woods and bogs alternating in the Central Estonian plain; there are some primeval forests as well. Vooremaa with its beautiful mirror lakes is the pride of the county, one of the most peculiar glacial surface features in Europe. Also the Russian-speaking Old Believers’ villages with their churches, village streets stretching without a break along the Lake Peipsi shore and traditional activities have no parallels elsewhere. Jõgeva County has three towns and ten communes, with about 38,000 people living in a territory of 2,604 square kilometres.

Lääne County
Price: 0.28
Date: 08 July 2005
Print: offset
Designer: Lembit Lõhmus
Sheets: 5 x 5
Quantity issued: 1 000 000
Printing house: Cartor Security Printing/ France

Lääne County lies the farthest west on the Estonian mainland, lying on a relatively sparsely populated coastal area – 12 inhabitants per square kilometre compared with the overall Estonian density of 32 inhabitants per sq km. The county takes up 2,394 sq km, 5.3 percent of the territory of Estonia. The county comprises 237 islands, islets and reefs; the biggest of them are Vormsi (96.64 sq km) and Osmussaar (4.92 sq km). The total length of the coastline is 399 kilometres. The county has eleven local governments – one town (Haapsalu) and 11 communes. The population was 28,968 as of 1 April 2005. Lääne County has 14 nature reserves making up 22 percent of the territory of the county, the best known of them being the Matsalu National Park, a bird sanctuary extending to 480 square kilometres. It is believed more than two million waterfowl stop there during the spring and about 300,000 in the autumn migration. The total number of bird species registered in Matsalu is 270, with 157 species regularly nesting in the area. Lääne County is one of eight prehistorical Estonian counties. From 1228 to the Livonian War in the 16th century the county belonged to the Bishopric Oesel-Wiek. The construction of the oldest architectural monuments of the county, bishop’s castles and churches (Lihula, Haapsalu, Koluvere, Ridala) began then. Sea eagle with a nimbus is the historical device of Lääne County ever since the Bishopric Oesel-Wiek was established in the 13th century. It orignally belonged to St John the Evangelist, appointed by the Pope as the guardian saint of the bishopric.

No comments: