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Corfu Town, Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greek Islands, Greece Photographic Print Merten, Hans... 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted The cities of Ancient Greece were either left to grow naturally in the landscape, while outstanding topographical features were brilliantly emphasised (the Acropolis, Athens), or -- as in the later, Hellenistic period -- they were built on the gridiron plan with horizontally crossing streets and square or rectangular blocks (Miletus, Priene). This system, used by the town-planner Hippodamus of Miletus, is still to some extent used to-day. It was somewhat modified by the Romans, who were probably influenced by Etruscan examples. Two axial roads, crossing at right angles, divide the otherwise geometrically arranged city into four areas ( Trier, Timgad). This axial road-crossing still influenced the planning of certain medieval towns (Rottweil, Villingen).
The gridiron was also retained and was mainly used in the cities of the newly colonized regions of eastern Germany.Otherwise, the medieval city is generally a picturesque 'natural' growth, unaffected by any geometrical principles, although it is by no means an aimless sprawl. The Renaissance planners alone tried once again to devise 'ideal cities' on strictly geometric lines, preferably circular, polygonal or square, with a radial street system. But few towns were in fact built in this manner (Palmanova, Hanau, Freudenstadt). Town planning gained a powerful new impetus during the Baroque. The Baroque city was not so much arranged round a central square as orientated towards the sovereign's residence, whose gardens either mirrored or slightly varied the lay-out of the streets.
In France, the classic example of this kind is Versailles; in Germany we find Baroque lay-outs at Rastatt, Karlsruhe, Ludwigsburg and a number of other cities. In Italy, where an absolutist central power was unknown, emphasis was on the square as the city centre. Michelangelo's re-designed Capitol marked a beginning; this was followed by Rainaldi's Piazza del Popolo ( 1662) and Bernini's St Peter's Square, Rome, built between 1655 and 1667. In France, the Place Vendôme, the Place Royale and the Place des Vosges (all in Paris) deserve special mention, as does Heré's magnificent Place Royale ( 1753-55) at Nancy.
In England, one of the earliest examples of town planning is Wren's design for London after the Great Fire, although with the exception of St Paul's and the city churches, it scarcely materialized. But London still has a number of well-planned districts. Regent's Park, with its terraces and crescents, the design of John Nash, was originally part of a very much larger scheme, of which the old Regent Street, Carlton House Terrace and Carlton House itself formed part. Carlton House, the residence of the Prince Regent, was demolished before Nash's work was finished, the colonnades in Regent Street were taken down in 1848 and Regent Street itself was completely re-built in the twenties of this century. Regent's Park fortunately survives, its terraces comparatively undamaged. As a piece of town-planning, it is probably unique. The park with its lake, the light stucco houses, forming a background to the landscape, the brilliantly produced illusion of the country-side so close to the centre of a big city, have won admiration for well over a century.
Other fine examples in Britain of the town-planner's art are the Royal Naval College at Greenwich (begun by Inigo Jones and completed by Sir Christopher Wren) with Inigo Jones's Queen's House opposite; the large area between the Gray's Inn Road and the Thames, known as the Temple (in parts badly damaged during the Second World War); Edinburgh New Town by the Adam Brothers; and the Royal Crescent at Bath by John Wood and his son.
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