To Balkan women, with love

     Balkan Peninsula, peninsula in southeastern Europe, bounded on the east by the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the west by the Adriatic and Ionian seas. It has always been strategically important as part of the land bridge between Europe and Asia and as the overland route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. It contains the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, continental Greece, south-east Romania, Bulgaria, and European Turkey.

     The idea of this page came from the beautiful souvenir sheet issued by the Romania Post on May 27, 1971, commemorating the BALKANFILA III stamp exhibition, opened in Bucharest between June 27 and July 2. I remember well this exhibition, that I have visited on the opening day, and where I have bought the souvenir sheet shown below. The sheet contains 6 stamps and 6 labels showing the exhibition emblem, a dove, the symbol of peace, hovering over Balkans (a hope and a premonition in the same time). It displays women paintings from the six Balkan countries that existed in 1971. I list below the name of the painter, the subject of the the painting and the origin of the painter.

     There are displayed on the sheet, from left to right and top-down: Kole Idromeno, "Motra Tone", Albania. V. Dimitrov-Maystora, "Maid", Bulgaria. Joseph Stieler, "Rosa Botzaris", Greece. Katarina Ivanovic, "Woman in Costume", Yugoslavia. Carol Popp de Szathmary, "Woman from Arges", Romania. Calli Ibrahim, "Woman in Modern Dress", Turkey. The sheet is shown reduced to a quarter of the original size, but each stamp is shown also separately in full size. For three of portraits I could find the corresponding stamps issued by the country of origin and have put such portraits side by side or one under another (see above).

    On two supplementary rows I show some nice Balkan women portraits from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and from former Yugoslavia.

    Please point to the images with the mouse to get more information about the works of art displayed on this page.