Well-preserved medieval cities

[erbse]

Originally Posted by tommolo

well, to me the variety of colours are the strenghts of central italian old towns really, since the colour is given by stones and marbles and not through painting, it is the colour itself of the material, its surface, its soul. But I agree with you in a sense that these details are hardly perceivable in a "plain" medium like photography is, as much as those pictures might be amazing. But trust me, the real thing is another level, really! they deserves really to be seen "live"!

No need to tell me, I'm absolutely aware of their "live qualities".

But still, it's mainly stone surfaces. While Central European old towns offer a broad variety of them all, in most towns: Stone facades, plastering, timbered constructions, iron, bricks, slate, virtually everything. So there are more different kinds of surfaces to discover for the eye.

[skymantle]

More Rhodes, Greece world heritage listed medieval city

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Port View by puffymarine, on Flickr

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Rhodes Knights' Hospital by thomas alan, on Flickr

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Palace of the Grand Masters Courtyard by puffymarine, on Flickr

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Courtyard Statues by puffymarine, on Flickr

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Central Courtyard by puffymarine, on Flickr

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Rhodes " Greece", Rhodes town, Fountain Jewish quarter by gaia1969, on Flickr

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Typical courtyard inside walled city of Rhodes, Greece by schnookkey, on Flickr

[OakRidge]

I assume most of that is Venetian in origin?

[buho]

Beautiful Rhodes!

[Caustic]

Originally Posted by FAK

Orvieto (PG) , ITALY

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Orvieto 09 di indigeno314, su Flickr

For the sake of proper information, I must correct you here. This is actually Bolsena, located on the homonymous lake, not far from Orvieto. Great pictures, anyway.

[viennaphotograph]

Prague Center ...

The Central Market Place in Prague ("Altstädter Ring") covers about 9000 m².

Background: Teynkirche (begun in 1365, finished in the first part of the 16th century)

Foreground:

Leftmost: part of the Rokoko Palais Kinsky (1765),
aside: "Haus zur steinernen Glocke" in the beginning of the 14th century (gothic)

Right: Houses with Renaissance Front (left: Teynschule, right: "Zum weißen Einhorn")



Regards,
Felix

[vittorio tauber]

Originally Posted by OakRidge

I assume most of that is Venetian in origin?

Most of what people see in Rhodes was rebuilt from rubble -namely the Castle and the City Walls- during the Italian Rule (1912-1945).

The gothic fountain in the last pic is the modern copy of a fountain located in Viterbo.

[gameoveryes]

The perfect place to

[skymantle]

Originally Posted by vittorio tauber

Most of what people see in Rhodes was rebuilt from rubble -namely the Castle and the City Walls- during the Italian Rule (1912-1945).

It was rebuilt during the Italian occupation, but it wasn't all necessarily 'rubble', although certainly run-down and in need of reconstruction. The well-preserved city today is not entirely from 1912-1945 either, as during the war it was extensively ruined and has been preserved slowly and sympathetically only in the relative recent past, as a result of UNESCO intervention, and no less the positive impacts of the tourism boom.

The style and form of the medieval city is quite eclectic, and can only truly be referred to as European medieval as many different European groups had a hand in the way the city turned out.

Originally Posted by vittorio tauber

The gothic fountain in the last pic is the modern copy of a fountain located in Viterbo.

Interesting. I wonder, is it this fountain that it's modelled on?

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Viterbo, Piazza della Crocetta by stefania_antonioni, on Flickr

[Pondlife]

Riga in Latvia is a beautiful city

[Gistok]

Nice pictures all...

It was especially interesting seeing the pictures of the walls of Rome (and as we know, the Vatican
has walls as well). Since most large European cities destroyed their city walls and bastions to build
their ring roads (Ringstrasse)... I was trying to think of other large cities that preserved their walls...
the only one that comes to mind is Nuremberg.

I was impressed by how well Nuremberg preserved their town walls, and also they kept some of the
towers of earlier walls after they expanded the wall system farther outwards. The Weisser Turm tower
in the southwest part of the old town is used today as the entranceway to a subway station... a very
unique idea... that makes it easy for visitors to find their way to the subway stop (just look for the
tower).

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Another interesting use of the former fortifications in Nuremberg was when they expanded the walls
father out, they used the inner deep moats to build several floors of sub-basements into an already
open hole, and one novel use was to build some of the town graneries up from the bottom of the
moat. One beautifully reconstructed granery, known as the Mauthalle, was built on a former moat
location, so that this massive 9 story building has nearly as much storage space under the new street
level, as it does above street level (this is an early 20th century image)...

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[ampurias]

Florence in Italy is commonly associated with the renaissance but there are many buildings in the city that are from the medieval period.

The incredible cathedral is a Gothic masterpiece although some of its features like the cupola by Bunelleschi are more Renaissance:





And there is the San Miniato al Monte church:

[Silano]

To me Italy has the most well-preserved medieval villages/towns/hamlets in Europe. The authentic atmosphere of them is astonishing!

See with own eyes guys what I mean:

Morano Calabro, Calabria - South Italy

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a felicidade da neve... por RENATO PAGLIARO / Pierre Lisarb, no Flickr

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Morano Calabro, dal basso por jonicus, no Flickr

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Morano Calabro (Cosenza) por Adi Vastano, no Flickr

[Silano]

Old village of Pacentro, near L'Aquila, Abruzzo

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pacentro por luigi.cinquina, no Flickr

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Pacentro, Abruzzo por BoblyP, no Flickr

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Pacentro (L'Aquila) por Adi Vastano, no Flickr

[Silano]

Pitigliano, Tuscany - town on the tuff

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source

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Pitigliano por qualcunaltrohagia, no Flickr

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source

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Pitigliano in "abito" da sera por Dancing Flowers by Gio', no Flickr

[OtAkAw]

Outstanding preservation of heritage in Italy. No wonder it has the most number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

[printingray]

West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival is celebrated at the end of August and continues till beginning of September to honor the past. Its is the symbol of love and pride on cultural heritage of Italian Americans in western Virginia. They celebrate the festival and preserve rich traditions for future generations. It was celebrated first time in 1979 and now rated in top 100 events in North America and Canada bringing more than ten thousand visitors to Clarksburg.

[photolitherland]

Holy shit, those little Italian villages are absolutely splendid!

[Fab87]

Originally Posted by erbse

No need to tell me, I'm absolutely aware of their "live qualities".

But still, it's mainly stone surfaces. While Central European old towns offer a broad variety of them all, in most towns: Stone facades, plastering, timbered constructions, iron, bricks, slate, virtually everything. So there are more different kinds of surfaces to discover for the eye.

I know what you mean, but don't confuse Tuscany with the rest of Italy...

And besides, we're showing preserved medieval villages here. Italy is extremely various. 4 towns from southern and northern Italy:

Peschici, Apulia
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Peschici di Andrea Parisse, su Flickr

Atrani, Campania
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Atrani di Arian Durst, su Flickr

Portovenere, Liguria

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Porto Venere di Massi e Natalia, su Flickr

Bassano, Veneto

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Veneto - Bassano del Grappa VI di Carmelo61 PhotoPassion Thanks +700.000 views, su Flickr

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Bassano del Grappa "Ponte Vecchio" 2 di Franco Ferri Mala, su Flickr

4 different coherent villages.

Some villages in Italy are indeed very coherent in terms of architecture, but not every one of them looks like the famous tuscanian or umbrian small towns. And besides, old towns in Italy have an extremely various architecture, with coloured facades, marble facades, stone facades standing next to each other. If you're talking about villages obviously you find more coherence.

[ThatOneGuy]

Sighisoara, Romania. Most buildings and pathways have been pretty much untouched for 800 years.



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