Best preserved European city

[Karasek]

Originally Posted by VitMos

destructions were only on city suburbs, but all historical buildings and palaces were restored.

These suburbs are part of the city too, and in many cases the quarters from the 19th century are very beautiful and great places to live.

[CNB30]

paris



No war machine laid a finger on the city in WWII

[Gistok]

The argument about whether a building is wonderfully preserved or poorly preserved is sort of a moot point anyway. Until the 19th-20th century most cities had areas that looked poorly preserved.

Also, many of the historic cities of Europe, such as Carcassone and Rothenburg spent centuries as poor areas that people didn't change, because there was no money to modernize, or perhaps there was little desire to live there for a long time. Even Rome went from being a city of over a million during the Empire period down to less than 25,000 population until the Renaissance. In fact before the Renaissance other cities in Italy were larger (population wise) than was Rome (such as Florence and Milan). However, even with a population of only 25,000.... it was a city of many ancient buildings. What saddens me is that so much of the fabric of Ancient Rome was used as a quarry to build Renaissance Rome. (This practice has been going on since the Pharoah's of ancient Egypt.)

Pointing out that a historic city is "well preserved" or just preserved, doesn't matter so much... as long as there is hope for future restoration.

I'm sure that many cities in the world are worst off than Naples, but are also still preserved to some degree. And level of safety has NO relevance as far as preservation goes.

One city that no one has mentioned that I am curious about is Istanbul...

Also, much of the fabric of the hill towns of Transylvania was built by Transylvanian Saxons... Germans who moved to Transylvania in the 1180s AD. They were invited by Hungarian King Bela II, and stayed until the end of WWII, when 13 million ethnic Germans moved out of Eastern Europe before the onslaught of the Russians near the wars end.

Usually the best preserved cities in Europe often went thru long centuries of decline before being "rediscovered" by world travelers, and have been or are being restored.

[Axelferis]

Originally Posted by CNB30

paris



No war machine laid a finger on the city in WWII

Paris my love

But it is false that war didn't affect the city:

http://www.google.fr/search?q=paris+...ELSU0QXAiemABw

[datoriprogram]

Isn't the easy answer: every city where "modern" war hasn't taken place?

[Galro]

Originally Posted by the spliff fairy

Those pics are from Romania - I loved my trip to Sighisoara, real fairy tale country of ancient woods and mountains all around.

My nominee would be Siena - no cars allowed.

Huh? I have admittedly never been to Siena, but there are plenty of cars to be seen in Siena on streetview:

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...,97.2,,0,-7.27

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...2,3.74,,0,0.76

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...12,135.56,,0,0

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...99.67,,0,-0.69

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...49.48,,0,-1.32

https://maps.google.no/maps?q=Siena,...170.17,,0,0.14

[the spliff fairy]

sorry, meant only locals, who can afford the hefty license to park in the city. Cars from outside the walls are not allowed.

[TheReconstructer]

Venice ofcourse, a lot of historical buildings, like San Marco's Basilica, all the houses and palazzo's among the Canal Grande, the churches, monasteries and other buildings like the Arsenal

[Victor.besa]

One i forgot, Santiago de compostela, Spain, beatiful preserved city.

[ledeled]

St. Petersburg

The total area of the historical core - 56 sq. km.

Photo by Gelio









Photo by Pavel Kozionov

[ThatOneGuy]

St Petersburg is beautiful.

[CNB30]

Originally Posted by Axelferis

Paris my love

But it is false that war didn't affect the city:

http://www.google.fr/search?q=paris+...ELSU0QXAiemABw

I mean that the city was not bombed or expirienced any combat in WWII

[009]

Paris and Prague

Naples is the worst preserved

[Suburbanist]

Has this become another "picture flame war thread"?

=================

I take issue with defining what is a "preserved area". I am, for the sake of argument, assuming we are all talking about the preservation of specific cohesive areas, not entire cities that might or might have not have grown a lot since 19th Century...

First, you have the problem of the historical threshold. Many cities cited here were built and re-built countless times over centuries, so what classifies a place as preserved or not? Paris, for instance, was extensively and thoroughly "remade" in mid-19th Century. Almost nothing of medieval Paris is left and someone engaged in a similar conversation like this in 1890 could be well saying the same thing, how the renovations of then erased the earlier urban fabric.

Berlin was practically razed to the ground in WW2. But Rome was also razed in 462 BC. Both cities have been reconstructed 1500 years apart: is age the only criteria?

[louk]

I think Amsterdam

[skyscraperus]

Prague ?

[skymantle]

Does anyone know the name of this garden/square in St Petersburg?

[Kiboko]

Originally Posted by World 2 World

Amsterdam

No way. Amsterdam has lots of old canal houses but most of the time these buildings are interspersed with hideous buildings from the 80s.

[Copperknickers]

Originally Posted by datoriprogram

Isn't the easy answer: every city where "modern" war hasn't taken place?

Not in the slightest. There are plenty of cities in the UK where the Blitz was hardly felt at all, at least in the central areas, yet nothing now remains of the medieval and renaissance periods. Sometimes fires destroyed them like in London, sometimes they were built on top of like in Edinburgh, sometimes they were just demolished wholesale like in Glasgow.

[Copperknickers]

Originally Posted by Sukino

Edinburgh, Bruges, Toledo, Prague, Venice

You obviously haven't been to Edinburgh. Its absolutely full of modern buildings, apart from the Old and New towns, which make up about 5% of the city's area.