DBWI: The most beautiful city in the world

Definitely New Amsterdam. How the Dutch adapted their architecture to fit skyscrapers makes for a lovely skyline.
 

Germaniac

Donor
No doubt it is La Nouvelle-Orléans, capital of the Louisiana Republic. The mixture of Caribbean and French influences are beautiful. It is such a wonderful city.
 
For shame - how could you leave out the breathtaking vistas of Machu Pikchu, jewel of the New Inkan Empire? The way the city has artfuly blended modern architecture with the ancient stone temples and houses should be an inspiration to all.
 
For shame - how could you leave out the breathtaking vistas of Machu Pikchu, jewel of the New Inkan Empire? The way the city has artfuly blended modern architecture with the ancient stone temples and houses should be an inspiration to all.
Machu Pichu could hardly be called a city, it houses what, the Emperor, his family, the government, and maybe a few thousand other people? It's simply not possible for it to house enough people for it to be considered a city by any stretch.

Neapolis* on the other hand is simply marvellous, the way they've tried to keep a rustic feel to it even with the newest buildings, plus the perfect union of greco-roman and muslim arab, it really is a joy to behold, especially if you're seeing it from the bay in a yacht at sunset... there are simply no words to describe it.

*A nice change from being the armpit of Italy :D
 

Baskilisk

Banned
Definantly Washington, D.C.
The wide, airy plazas, arborous parks, and huge marble monuments...Jefferson may have wqanted it to be an American Paris, but it's more like Paris is an American Washington DC.
I love everything about it. Myriads of artists, painting the tidal basin and the pristine Potomac River, the wide, mellow streets lined with busts of leaders and scientists, surrounded by cherry blossoms in full bloom. And the architechture, oh the architecture...Colonial lofts and Greco-Roman marble buildings, European-style tenements lined with limestone and bright plexiglass, gold-leaf paint and colorful gazebos. Purely astounding.
 
Actually, this question makes me a bit angry (no, no, not at the questioner) because when I've been researching stuff, and I keep finding references to things that aren't there anymore.

And that's sad, to know that there are places in the world that used to be astoundingly beautiful that aren't anymore, because people were insane, or stupid.

So, without further ado, I present my "I'm glad your empire's not around anymore, because if you used the Parthenon for a gunpowder depot, you fail the cosmic Darwin test" awards.*

1. Baghdad. Mongols. I don't really have the stomach for details.

2. Imagine what Beijing would be like if the English and French hadn't destroyed the old Summer Palace, and if Mao hadn't ruined the old historical center of the city to fit a million people in Tienanmen Square. And seriously, either the UK and France should pay to rebuild the Summer Palace, or the People's Liberation Army should get a week to do whatever redecorating at Versailles and Windsor Castle it thinks would be fair under the circumstances.

3. Warsaw, which after the 1945 Uprising had 85% of the buildings leveled by the Nazis, who used flamethrowers, and who took out the stuff with the greatest cultural resonance for the Polish people first. What they did to the people in the city was of course worse, but I'll not rant about that here.

Of course, there are other examples, but I find it interesting that some of the cities that might figure in such a list like Moscow, Dresden, Berlin and Wurzburg have aggressively been rebuilding what they lost in prior decades, which I am actually heartily in favor of because these cities accumulated over time around existing spaces, structures, narratives and images, and the loss of these monuments--whether in Allied WWII bombing or to clear space for some horrible Palace of Soviets--wounds the city itself in a very real sense.

And of course destroyed cities further afield from present day like Tenochtitlan and Carthage would be very cool too, although perhaps because their destructions occurred further back they somehow don't seem as egregious.

Sorry for not keeping with the desired form!


*Of course the Venetians actually fired on said gunpowder depot, which is actually probably worse, but hey they don't have an empire any more either, so well nyah to them too.
 
Neapolis is indeed a beautiful place to be, especially on a yacht during the summertime. Except it falls victim to the same problem as all other Roman cities; sprawl. There isn't any real plan or rhythm to the city, slums tend to gather up near the old city walls, catacombs and tunnels pierce the ground at random intervals, and the street map doesn't make any sense at all. All of Neapolis' problems go double for Constantinople, which is very, very easy to get lost in, especially if you're in Chrysopolis, which contains so many dead end streets, you'll starve to death before managing to get back to your hotel.

Svalberg is definitely on the list. Just a bit grey and dreary if you ask me. But the Basilica of St. Harald and the surrounding districts definitely make up for it. However, the basilica pales in comparison to Jinshan's Golden Butterfly Pavilion overlooking the harbor. In fact, everything about Jinshan is designed to evoke a sense of wondrous serenity.

Qurtuba can be summed up in two words: Medina Azahara. Well, I'm oversimplifying it, but you get what I mean.

New Amsterdam just looks tacky in comparison to any of the above.
 
Königsberg
Frankfurt am Main
Berlin

These are the German cities with the most severe loss of cultural assets due to World War II and its aftermath.

Königsberg wasn't just renamed into Kaliningrad, but also thoroughly redesigned as a Soviet model city.

Francfort had a continuous medieval city before getting hit by Allied bombers.

Berlin's wounds seem to have mended, but you can still feel the scars, you have to get used to them. OK, other cities lost more, but its the capital.
 
So, without further ado, I present my "I'm glad your empire's not around anymore, because if you used the Parthenon for a gunpowder depot, you fail the cosmic Darwin test" awards.*.

Nobody asked the Venetians to invade and try to take over Greece. Athens was just a mud village and the Acropolis was the only defensible spot. There was really no other place to put a magazine.

And those horses need to come off St Marks and be returned to where they belong.
 
It may not be an especially beautiful city, but I'll always love Constantinople. How many other cities can boast cathedral skyscrapers, the oldest railway station in the world, and 1500 years of history as the capital of the Roman Empire?

In fact, the whole Eastern Empire is worth exploring, outside Al-Andalus, there's simply nothing to compare- nowhere else in the world feels so lived in. The markets of Antioch are wonderful, and Iconium's 18th century mosaics-- the finest in the world? I recently read a rather terrifying AH novel where the Romans lost a battle somewhere in Armenia in the 11th century... and all this glory never was. Al Andalus was gone too, and the Chinese cities of the New World were never built! A scary thought, I'm sure you'd agree :eek:
 

ninebucks

Banned
Unquong, (Xiang Kung), is pretty great. The feats of engineering that transformed a collection of small islands off southern China into a bustling metropolis are pretty amazing.

The culture is unique too, half Cantonese, half French, and half every other culture under the sun.
 
It may not be an especially beautiful city, but I'll always love Constantinople. How many other cities can boast cathedral skyscrapers, the oldest railway station in the world, and 1500 years of history as the capital of the Roman Empire?

In fact, the whole Eastern Empire is worth exploring, outside Al-Andalus, there's simply nothing to compare- nowhere else in the world feels so lived in. The markets of Antioch are wonderful, and Iconium's 18th century mosaics-- the finest in the world? I recently read a rather terrifying AH novel where the Romans lost a battle somewhere in Armenia in the 11th century... and all this glory never was. Al Andalus was gone too, and the Chinese cities of the New World were never built! A scary thought, I'm sure you'd agree :eek:

Wait...if Al-Andalus is gone, who would rule Hispania? If it disappears, I could see Hispania germanizing (1) into dozens of squabbling states, each led by a local warlord/strongman.

Also, secularism, arguably the most important contribution of Al-Andalus to human society, would never materialize. What would the modern world be like with religious authorities constantly undermining the decisions made by secular governments?

~*~*~
(1): Germanizing is this TL's equivalent of Balkanizing.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Königsberg wasn't just renamed into Kaliningrad, but also thoroughly redesigned as a Soviet model city.

Was it ever.

They turned this:

440px-K%C3%B6nigsberg_Castle.jpg


Into this:

488px-Dom_sovetov_kaliningrad.jpg



:(
 
Top