The most beautiful European villages/hamlets/small towns

[jan 1968]

Positano, Italy

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[dexter2]

Originally Posted by italiano_pellicano

italy is incredible amazing

The problem is that most of those examples from western and southern Europe are cities not villages

[akul7]

Lovely village
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[akul7]

Star-shape today very uncommon, i believe it was a fort
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Willemstad strange name for village.

[Gistok]

Portmeiron Wales....

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[Silano]

Originally Posted by dexter2

The problem is that most of those examples from western and southern Europe are cities not villages

The main rule of this thread is show little pearls from Europe, what includes not only villages and hamlets, but also small towns (examples until 15 k inhabitants would be great to post here).

It's important non Europeans discover the beauty of the old continent besides classical touristics brands, such as Rome, Paris, Venice, Madrid, London, whatever.


Anyway, have you ever seen a city here? Where's it?

[CitoyenNéerlandais]

I agree with that. And there aren’t cities, there are towns.
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Vianden, Luxembourg

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Vianden by x-oph, on Flickr

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Vianden by Van Gelder Patrick, on Flickr

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Vianden (9) by jim_skreech, on Flickr

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Vianden 2007 by jordiromkema, on Flickr

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Vianden Curve6 by ocabanaboy, on Flickr

[jonnyboy]

some big villages on here. a village should be around max 500 people living in it?

[weird]

^

Nice castle that one!

[Spurdo]

Great thread! I enjoy seeing those quaint little towns/villages. I specially like the Spanish ones Very lovely.

[The Blond Guy]

500 people ??!!!
Then we in Belgium wouldn't have a single village. (Maybe some in Walloonia)

[roe5745]

Bibury, England







Castle Combe, England



Clovelly, England



Portree, Scotland

[JohnnyMass]

Originally Posted by in'sauga

Piodoa, Portugal



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It's Piódão, not Piodoa.

[jumping_jack]

Originally Posted by dexter2

The problem is that most of those examples from western and southern Europe are cities not villages

Originally Posted by jonnyboy

some big villages on here. a village should be around max 500 people living in it?

Originally Posted by The Blond Guy

500 people ??!!!
Then we in Belgium wouldn't have a single village. (Maybe some in Walloonia)

it may be confusing since different regions in europe developed different settlement types. in central and eastern europe a village is a strictly productive settlement, it's composed by fenced houses which have other facilities within the fence like barns or stables. so such a village is substantially a group of individual farms, where residential and productive functions are bound togheter. this kind of settlement originally were meant to colonise new unused lands and have preserved a strong feudal character of the spatial configuration.

in italy (but probably in most mediterranean countries) a village has residential character, there may be some storage rooms on ground floor of village houses but such buildings definitely haven't functions of a farm. the agricultural aspects of the countryside are managed in different manners (with strong regional differences).in central italy for example they were based on poderi which are a free standing farms scattered allover the hilly landscape, this because the feudal character of the countryside started to be obsolete already in the middle ages, so normal renting instead of feudal dependancies were preffered, there were also no need to colonise the land because it was inhabited since the ancient era.

it also may be confusing because the word in italian to describe an italian rural settlement is paese, i never heard the word villaggio to be used reffering a settlement in peninsular italy(at most to some place in alpine regions). however both the words, villaggio and paese can be translated as village in english.

probably the rural pattern differs even more in other european areas such scandinavia or british islands so it's impossible to define village on european basis, everyone imagine a village as it appears in his own country or region

example:

czech village:



italian village (paese):



italian farm (podere):

image hosted on flickr

[TheReconstructer]

Oostwoud

[TheReconstructer]

De Weere, Nederland

[weird]

Originally Posted by jumping_jack

it may be confusing since different regions in europe developed different settlement types. in central and eastern europe a village is a strictly productive settlement, it's composed by fenced houses which have other facilities within the fence like barns or stables. so such a village is substantially a group of individual farms, where residential and productive functions are bound togheter. this kind of settlement originally were meant to colonise new unused lands and have preserved a strong feudal character of the spatial configuration.

You can apply the same concept of Italy to Spain. Very accurate.

[Silano]

Gargilesse-Dampierre, France

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Gargilesse-Dampierre (Indre) por PierreG_09, no Flickr

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Gargilesse-Dampierre por abac077, no Flickr

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Gargilesse-Dampierre 1 por sylviedjinn 14, no Flickr

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Village du Berry por jolivillage, no Flickr

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Gargilesse-Dampierre (Indre) por PierreG_09, no Flickr

[Silano]

Beilstein, Germany

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Beilstein & Metternich por igor29768, no Flickr

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Beilstein (Mosel) por onnola, no Flickr


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[Silano]

Originally Posted by jumping_jack

it may be confusing since different regions in europe developed different settlement types. in central and eastern europe a village is a strictly productive settlement, it's composed by fenced houses which have other facilities within the fence like barns or stables. so such a village is substantially a group of individual farms, where residential and productive functions are bound togheter. this kind of settlement originally were meant to colonise new unused lands and have preserved a strong feudal character of the spatial configuration.

in italy (but probably in most mediterranean countries) a village has residential character, there may be some storage rooms on ground floor of village houses but such buildings definitely haven't functions of a farm. the agricultural aspects of the countryside are managed in different manners (with strong regional differences).in central italy for example they were based on poderi which are a free standing farms scattered allover the hilly landscape, this because the feudal character of the countryside started to be obsolete already in the middle ages, so normal renting instead of feudal dependancies were preffered, there were also no need to colonise the land because it was inhabited since the ancient era.

it also may be confusing because the word in italian to describe an italian rural settlement is paese, i never heard the word villaggio to be used reffering a settlement in peninsular italy(at most to some place in alpine regions). however both the words, villaggio and paese can be translated as village in english.

probably the rural pattern differs even more in other european areas such scandinavia or british islands so it's impossible to define village on european basis, everyone imagine a village as it appears in his own country or region

example:

czech village:



italian village (paese):



italian farm (podere):

image hosted on flickr

Perfect explanation!