Icons of New Caledonia

660 FCFP 5,53 €

Onglets

Description

With this new booklet of 6 stamps, OPT-NC invites you to enter the world of graphic designer Mathieu Bastide. Drawn from a series of illustrations entitled “Icons of New Caledonia”, these delicately refined yet finely detailed designs celebrate the beauty of nature and architecture.

The University of New Caledonia building can be seen from avenue James Cook and was designed by Jean de Giacinto, Coco Architecture and Philippe Jarcet. The bevelled outline of the elegant 250 seat auditorium is supported by long, slender columns.

Vao church was built by Marist missionaries in 1860 and enlarged in 1950, with the addition of two oeil-de-boeuf windows on the facade and two ogival windows on each side. It once adorned 1 000 XPF banknotes from the so-called 2001 series.

The Bandstand has been the centrepiece of Place Feillet since 1879. The octagonal structure was completely rebuilt in 1986. Although the metal lyre crowning the roof was restored in 1893, it belongs to the original bandstand.

Various components, each with a specific meaning, are used in the construction of a traditional Kanak great hut. The most visible is the rooftop totem at the apex of the hut, a sacred symbol considered to be a living person. The carved door posts at the entrance represent the clan’s protecting spirits.

The town and community of Hienghène prizes the Broody Hen rock outcrop as one of its most famous symbols. Carved out of the same black limestone as the Lindéralique cliffs, the eerily lifelike “Hen” outcrop lies within a UNESCO World Heritage listed area.

Finally, the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and built between 1995 and 1998, features ten graceful pavilions soaring 20 to 28 metres high and evoking the structural frame of a traditional hut under construction.

Features
Printing process: 
Authors: 
Thematic: 
Material: 
Edition: 
12000
Date of issue: 
01/13/2020
Format: 
0 × 32 × 20 mm
Nb of stamps per booklet: 
6
Printer: