Synopses & Reviews
What makes a city endure and prosper? In this masterful survey of a thousand years of urban architecture, Wolfgang Braunfels identified certain themes common to cities as different as Siena and London, Munich and Venice. Most important is an architecture that expresses the city's personality and most particularly its political personality. Braunfels describes and classifies scores of citiesand#8212;cathedral cities, city-state, maritime cities, imperial citiesand#8212;and examines the links between their political and architectural histories. Lavishly illustrated with city plans, bird's-eye views, early renderings, and modern photographs, this book will delight and instruct architects, urban planners, historians, and travelers.
About the Author
Kenneth J. Northcott is professor emeritus of German at the University of Chicago. He has translated a number of books for the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
Translator's Note
Preface
Introduction
1. CATHEDRAL CITIES
Cologne
Trier
Ecclesiastical Cities of the 10th and 11th Centuries
Halberstadt
Hildesheim
Bamberg
Cathedral Cities of the High Middle Ages
2. CITY-STATES
The Tuscan City-States
The Florentine Republic
Pisa, Pistoia, Lucca
Siena
Florence as the Seat of a Princely Court
The Swiss Cantonal Capitals: Zanduuml;rich and Bern
3. SEA POWERS
Venice and Amsterdam Contrasted
Venice
Landuuml;beck
Amsterdam
Manhattan
4. IMPERIAL CITIES
Self-representation as Self-interpretation
Cathedral Ciites as Imperial Cities
Regensburg
Augsburg
Nuremberg as a Model City
Ulm and the Small Swabian Imperial Cities
Esslingen
Reutlingen
Rothenburg
Ulm
Imperial Residence and Imperial City
Aachen
Goslar
Frankfurt
5. IDEAL CITIES
Aigues-Mortes and Richelieu
Terre Murate or Basides
Star-shaped Fortifications of the Baroque
Calais and Valletta
Urbanization of the Swedish Baltic Empire
City Plan and the Order of Salvation
6. SEATS OF A PRINCELY COURT
Early Forms in the 15th and 16th Centuries
Turin
Munich
Berlin as the Seat of a Princely Court
Dresden and Nancy
Episcopal Seats in the Holy Roman Empire
Salzburg
Wanduuml;rzburg
Versailles
Potsdam
St. Petersburg
7. CAPITAL CITIES
Prague
Vienna: The Conflict
Paris as a Model City
London
8. THE SECOND AND THIRD ROME
The Second Rome
The Vatican as Seat of Government
The Opening Up of the City and Its Hills
The Papal Squares
The Capitol as Political Utopia
Epilogue: The Unplannable
Notes
Credits
Index