The first mailbox appeared about 500 years ago. And although people now mainly send e-mails to each other, this unpretentious device was at the forefront of the development of the postal service.
First mailboxes
There is not one episode that can be considered the first mention of this invention. Three of them date back to the beginning of the 16th century. Then in Florence appeared wooden "vestibules", which had a gap on top and served to collect letters. They were usually installed near churches, and city residents often used them to plant anonymous letters against state traitors.
Around the same time, English seafarers near the Cape of Good Hope delivered boxes made of stone, which served as a buffer for exchanging written information with other ships. Similar adaptations were available for sailors from Holland.
The Austrians also used mailboxes already in the 16th century, although they were very modest in size and not stationary, but portable: postmen wore them, fastening them to a belt thrown over their shoulders. The city of Legnica, located on the territory of modern Poland, also has a claim to the first mention of a mailbox. There, according to the annals, it began to be used as early as 1633. The mailboxes are also mentioned in the archival materials of the Paris city post office, the date of foundation of which is considered to be 1653.
