Well-preserved medieval cities

[ArchitectCS]

I see a lot of posts on this forum that talk about medieval cities in Europe. Can someone tell me which ones are the largest and best preserved? My understanding is that Bruges is high on the list, but what about cities in Germany? I know Nurenburg is a famous medieval center, but much of that is a reconstruction. I'd love to assemble some sort of a list with details as I can't seem to find something like this on the web. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[william of waco]

How big are we talking here?
Regensburg, in my opinion, is Germany's best preserved city. Population-wise it is still small compared to the larger cities, of which there really are none that escaped serious damage, with an average of about 70% and more destruction to their historic centers.

Outside of Germany you will find that Stockholm, Bratislava, Krakow, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Berne, all have wonderfully preserved old-towns, in spite of the fact that a few suffered some destruction.
The more experienced members of the forum can give you a better idea of what is out there, but these should get you started in the right direction.
You could also look up UNESCO's world heritage site, where sometimes entire cities make the list.

The following photgraph of Regensburg is from leidorf.blogspot.com

[Clay Hefner]

Yup, Regnesburg has the biggest AND best preseved medieval old town in Germany. By far.

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Amberg is second I believe? Erfurt's is pretty big too, but I don't think it counts

other well preserved towns

NOERDLINGEN

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ROTHENBURG


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GELNHAUSEN

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SESSLACH

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DONAUWOERTH

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ALSFELD

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BERCHING

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WEISSENBURG

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AMBERG

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FRITZLAR

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DINKELSBUEHL

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[william of waco]

Clay Hefner,

Those are beautiful photos, which I have saved to my files.
Amberg in particular was amazing.

Doesn’t it seem that the buildings in the fourth Nordlingen photo are a tad glossy?
I have noticed this tendency in other photographs I have seen where medieval survivors appear to be encased in over-zealous layers of stucco and paint.
My ideal (and admittedly, naïve) image of these buildings are from photographs that date from a time before restoration. They’re faded and ramshackle facades exude a centuries-old aura. Those old houses in the Nordlingen photo, particularly the yellow one in the center, simply fail to “transport” my imagination back to another time. Did they paint it yellow in the sixteenth century?
Shells of their former self.

[Clay Hefner]

Originally Posted by william of waco

Clay Hefner,

Those are beautiful photos, which I have saved to my files.
Amberg in particular was amazing.

Doesn’t it seem that the buildings in the fourth Nordlingen photo are a tad glossy?
I have noticed this tendency in other photographs I have seen where medieval survivors appear to be encased in over-zealous layers of stucco and paint.
My ideal (and admittedly, naïve) image of these buildings are from photographs that date from a time before restoration. They’re faded and ramshackle facades exude a centuries-old aura. Those old houses in the Nordlingen photo, particularly the yellow one in the center, simply fail to “transport” my imagination back to another time. Did they paint it yellow in the sixteenth century?
Shells of their former self.

Yeah I agree. Especially if you look at old Photos from Regensburg before Renovation, it's like a whole different town, although the buildings are the same. Not as "pleasant"- colorful- looking, rather like mountains of stones.

I hope when it's time for next restoration they bring back the old look.
And yeah, Nördlingen as well as Dinkelsbühl have too many of those bland-looking facades.

[luci203]

2 Well-preserved Medieval Cities from Romania

SIBIU (Hermannstadt)





BRASOV (Kronstadt)

[OlekD]

Toruń, Poland

[william of waco]

Torun is one of my favorite Hanse cities.
But there is a question I have been wanting to ask for sometime. It concerns Copernicus' house in that city.
Is this what the house looked like during his time?
The photo below (wikimedia) made me feel that it looked a little too good to be true.
I'm not complaining though, because these buildings are very beautiful, in spite of their possibly overdone exteriors.
Are the facades a result of restoration?

[OlekD]

Originally Posted by william of waco

Torun is one of my favorite Hanse cities.
But there is a question I have been wanting to ask for sometime. It concerns Copernicus' house in that city.
Is this what the house looked like during his time?
The photo below (wikimedia) made me feel that it looked a little too good to be true.
I'm not complaining though, because these buildings are very beautiful, in spite of their possibly overdone exteriors.
Are the facades a result of restoration?

First of all, this building is only the most probable birthplace of Copernicus.

According to Wikipedia it was modernised in XIX century, but the later reconstruction in 1960-63 gave it original view from XV century.

[DocentX]

Originally Posted by OlekD

Toruń, Poland

some of my photos from Torun :

[Clay Hefner]

great pics. I love this brick architecture. Reminds me of Stendal and Tangermünde. The Transsylvanian cities are very nice as well.
Heck, let's continue this thread...

TANGERMUENDE
not *really* well preserved, 'cause the wooden houses all fell prey to a fire in the 17th century

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more of REGENSBURG
there's also an awesome thread around here somewhere but search function seems to be KAPUT for me

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[ufonut]

Grudziadz in the middle ages was the largest granary of Rzeczpospolita.

[OlekD]

There was no Rzeczpospolita in the middle ages

[OlekD]

More of Grudziądz:


from plfoto.com
by Darek983


by anzel

[erbse]

Great stuff everyone. But enough with the pictures on this page, please.


Europe has to offer an outstanding amount of medieval gems. Sad there's still so much gone through history.
Just think of all the devastating city fires back in the days..

[william of waco]

But enough with the pictures on this page, please.

I dont quite understand what you mean by this.
There aren't enough, in my opinion.

[erbse]

It takes a lot of PC RAM and loading time, esp. if you have some other tabs opened, like most people these days do. The amount of pictures should be reduced in single posts, phototours can be splitted. And that's better for the posting activity of this forum anyway. Got the point?

I'm going to post some German old town impressions on the next page, btw.

[william of waco]

Got it!

[Tiaren]

Originally Posted by erbse

I'm going to post some German old town impressions on the next page, btw.

I am looking forward to that!

[DocentX]

Chelmno (Poland)