Well-preserved medieval cities

[buho]

In Toledo there are two medieval synagogues, two medieval mosques and more than 20 medieval churchs and convents. It's the birthplace of mudejar style also.

[buho]

Originally Posted by hh11

Taj Mahal is a masterpiece, largely influenced by the Persian elements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

Yes... but it's not medieval, it's a 17th construction.

[seattle92]

Originally Posted by parcdesprinces

@Seattle92 : Did you see the pics of Carcassonne I've posted here... I think it's a REAL "Well-Preserved Medieval City"

Yeees, fantastic place

[seattle92]

Another example in Portugal

Monsaraz:

[Amrafel]

Bardejov in NE Slovakia has well-preserved city center with typical pieces of carpathian gothic architecture. You can also see there gothic church of st. Egidius and fortification. Bardejov is also on the UNESCO heritage list

[buho]

Did you see the pics of Carcassonne I've posted here... I think it's a REAL "Well-Preserved Medieval City"

Carcassonne is really beautiful, but was very reconstructed... Violet le-Duc.

[KWT]

Meknes, Morocco











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[IMG]http://www.**********/thumbs/3/%7B21870CC6-2E2A-4840-8C1C-FCFC79940ECC%7D/ARY83E.jpg[/IMG]

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[parcdesprinces]

Originally Posted by buho

Carcassonne is really beautiful, but was very reconstructed... Violet le-Duc.

Well, indeed, during the XIXth century, Carcassonne was restored/rehabilitated (btw only 30% of the city, essentially the roofing of the towers and some minor structures).

Anyway Carcassonne was the largest occidental medieval fortress, and today it's the Europe's largest medieval walled city still intact (double ring of walls and 53 towers) !!!

[Baboulinet]

Sarlat la canéda in France :

One of the most preserved medieval cities . ( 14 th century )

[Prinz Eugen]

Siena, Italy

[wolfpaw]

I've been to Sarlat many times as it was close to where I lived in France. It really is a staggeringly lovely place.

[*****]

Dubrovnik-Croatia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S6362BDRoU

[Concrete Stereo]

wonderful thread guys!

I've had the pleasure to visit quite a few of them. Towns like Dubvrovnik, Tallinn, Sibiu, Bruges, Mostar (ah, not yet shown) etc are absolutely great but of course are mostly voluntary prisons of architecture. So personally I prefer cities with considerable size above the tourist towns - to see contemporary life casually fitted in medieval setting.

Gent (Ghent) (Belgium) - Everybody visits little brother Brugge (Bruges), which leaves Gent to being the laid back cultural brother of Antwerp and main student city. Great place to live, it's basically is city without flaws. Has a very casual relation with it's history, without being careless.

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Some of these houses on the right are very very old (1300-1400 I thought)


well, anyway, lot's of squares, water, etc.


Amsterdam (Netherlands) - It's too obvious, of course, but it deserves a mention. Perfect example of medieval, 17th century and 19th century city fabric reconverted to the needs of 21st century city life. Though parts of the medieval centre might have been fed to the sharks and have pretty much fallen of the map for inhabitants, most of it is both beautiful and alive.


the canal rings are 17th centure, inside the canals is the medieval city, outside the last ring (in this case: outside the picture frame) is 19th century.



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Well, everybody knows the pictures, make sure you get lost properly in Amsterdam.


Ljubljana (Slovenia)
One of the most pretty cities of Europe, and lifely capital of Slovenia. Again, water, etc. Though it might have a bit too many 19th century and onwards buildings to still be fully considered a 'medieval city'.

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Lovely city, really.


There are many other ... perhaps somebody feels like posting some typical Dutch medieval towns (from Zeeland, or Den Bosch, of the ones in Holland or in Friesland/Groningen)?

[NorthLimitation]

Edinburgh has a lot of medieval architecture left, mixed in with Georgian and Victorian.

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Anyway, the cities and towns on this thread are stunning, there are a few that I'd definitely like to visit - great job guys!

[erbse]

Amsterdam has very few medieval/Gothic buildings left. Most are baroque, renaissance and early classicist or historist buildings.


Brügge, Ghent and Ypern (though destroyed in WWI) are better examples for medieval old towns in the BeNeLux.

[Ribarca]

Originally Posted by erbse

Amsterdam has very few medieval/Gothic buildings left. Most are baroque, renaissance and early classicist or historist buildings.


Brügge, Ghent and Ypern (though destroyed in WWI) are better examples for medieval old towns in the BeNeLux.

There were very little to start with. Amsterdam was a minor city in the middle ages.

[nikontrans]

Indeed awesome...!!

[El_Greco]

-Do towns count?
-Of course they do, silly

So I present

The beautiful medieval town of Rye in Sussex, England.















Full thread here - http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=625279

[Benonie]

That's a beauty, indeed!

[fernandofbf]

Originally Posted by 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

good!