European/American cities

     Hi everyone, today I’m not gonna talk about a European capital, but I will try to argue a little about why European cities are more interesting and fascinating to visit than American cities.

     

      So, on one hand, to my view, notwithstanding American cities are very beautiful and impressive with huge skyscrapers and buildings, they are too much younger than european cities, and as well they don’t have the huge heritage that European cities have thanks to their history. In america we can rarely visit a monument which dates from the 13th century for example. Furthermore, I find that all American cities are built with the same standards. For example each street is very straight and all parallels, in a linear way ; however, European cities are filled with a lot of picturesque little streets, and also with a big irregularity which gives to European cities an important and unique identity. On the other hand, american cities have European origins because it was european people who built first the cities over there and of course they built it with the same architecural style as european cities, and now we can found a lot of buildings which are very inspired by europen architecture, as well.

     To sum up, I think that even if american cities are also beautiful, they don’t have the huge diversity and heritage which european cities have, and that’s why European cities are more interesting to visit.

Dublin

Dublin,  '' Baile Átha Cliath ", is the capital of The Republic of Ireland. It’s also the biggest city in the country with some 550 000 inhabitants. The city is situated at the east coast of Ireland. In this post, I will focus on the evolution of Dublin’s architectural evolution.

First, the city was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century, but there is actually no vestige of Viking constructions because of the Norman Invasion of Ireland. So after this british invasion in 1170-1171, a lot of edifices, synonym of British power and patrimony, were built like the Dublin Castle (1204) or St Patrick’s Cathedral.

In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England wanted to make Dublin a protestant city and established some protestant edifices, like Trinity College. She also converted the St Patrick’s Cathedral to a protestant church.

The vast majority of Dublin’s notable architecture dates from the 18th century, with a huge diversity of architectural stlyes. Some significiant areas were established at this period like Temple Bar and Gafton Street, which are two remaining areas which an important medieval character (and also big touristic areas). Other important buildings and areas were established with a Georgian style like the Merrion Square or Henrietta Street. Then, other edifices were built at this time with a neo-classicism style like the Custom House.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the Irish War of Independance, and as a consequence the center of the city was mainly destroyed. After the war, the State of Ireland rebuilt the center but didn’t take initiative to modernise the city, so the city became an old city. But at the end of the century a modernisation plan weas established, and some modern areas were built like the Grand Canal Dock, an important hub of activities which attracts a lot of multinational firm (with a majority of IT and internet firms).