Beautiful Netherlands 2018: walking through cities with city gates

The artist drew the outlines of the city gates on the stamps with a black pen against a white background. The background of each stamp sheetlet shows a perspective drawing in red or blue of a map of the surrounding area.

Strong involvement

By means of his written and drawn records, Rothuizen has made a report in words and images of his walk through each city, the buildings he saw, and the people he met. 'In each city, I noticed the strong involvement of the inhabitants with their residence, how much they know about its history, and how eager they are to tell wonderful stories about it', the artist said.

Rooted in society

Since 2005, the 'Beautiful Netherlands' series has been paying tribute to local history, cultural treasures, and scenic beauty. Stephan van den Eijnden, commercial director Mail of PostNL: 'This way, we want to show that our business is rooted in Dutch society. City gates are proof of a past in which cities were walled to protect them. Fortunately, these days are over, but beautiful city gates have been preserved throughout the Netherlands. And now, five special ones can be found on stamps!'

On 4 June, PostNL will be publishing two other stamp sheetlets, featuring the city gates of Zierikzee and Culemborg. On this day, an assembled stamp sheetlet with all five city gates will also be appearing.

Availability

Each of the 'Beautiful Netherlands 2018' stamp sheetlets consists of five stamps marked with 'Nederland 1', the denomination for items up to 20g in weight destined for mail in the Netherlands. The stamps are available at post offices and Bruna shops as well as via postnl.nl/bijzondere-postzegels. The stamps are valid until further notice.