Sharing History

Since their establishment, post offices, the customer service facility, were an important component of national postal systems and were managed by these systems as their public face. In these facilities services such as the receipt of letters and parcels and the provision of postage stamps and postcards were offered. At first, wooden stamps with ink were used as evidence of payment for services, but starting from the 1840s more convenient postage stamps were introduced. This resulted in a great increase in mailing. In the post offices the mail was sorted and then distributed from the head office or mail station to the periphery offices. In the early days horses and stage coaches were used. Post offices were a matter of national (or imperial) pride. The size of the postal buildings and their location in the most vital areas of cities is evidence of the importance in which they were held, becoming “modern” landmarks in the cities together with ports and train stations.