Hello all,
I am looking for books or articles that focus on the development of traditional European public spaces in relation to religious and political ideologies.
It seems evident that most of the traditional public spaces in European cities were created with political and/or religious buildings as the primary focal points. In many cities, these two functions overlapped.
In the United States, our public spaces are continuously criticized in relation to these traditional European public spaces, though there is also a strong resistance to keep religious ideology separate from the public realm.
Hi Tyler, know of no 'articles' on the subject, but you may wish to check out Summerson's Georgian Architecture and Architecture in Britain, as well as Cruikshank's Georgian London for their account of the development of Covent Garden. Although now a built-up space, CG was originally an open square having a church (of England--St Paul's Covent Garden, which still survives) as a focal point. I believe it is Cruikshank who makes the point that the two continental precedents for this were linked by family ties to the British Royal Family through the Medicis, beginning with the Piazza Grande (Livorno) developed by duke Ferdinand 1 of Tuscany (a medici) and the Place Henri IV (now Place de Vosges, Paris) developed by king who s wife was Marie de Medicis. Livorno had a church as a centrepiece, whereas Paris did not. There is reason to believe that Paris was a speculative development for wealthy merchants who did not yet constitute the '4th estate' but whom the king sought to control and keep under surveillance by attracting them to a novel housing complex in a city that did not offer much accommodation to this emerging class.
Why don t you examine american examples, such as Mt Vernon Place in Baltimore (an open square in a cruciform plan evoking the original religious-settlement of the state of Maryland in the 1600s--and, to top it off, has the first of two Washington Monuments designed by Robert Mills) and Louisburg Square in Boston, which post dated the capture of the Canadian fortress in Nova Scotia by American colonists in the 1700s?
Hi Tyler , the link below maybe useful starting point, it is about Religion, Power, and Politics...regards
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/publications/Intro_ReligionPowerPolitics.pdf
Faris, thank you for your response. You are correct, this certainly gives a good platform for the discussion.
Tyler,
in case you haven't seen this, it might be a good starting point for further exploration of your question: Medieval Practices of Space (B. Hanawalt and M. Kobialka, eds.), University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Dear Tyler,
Of course, as the Italian piazza constitutes the very core of the paradigm, most of the literature on the question is in Italian. But I'm sure that the following book, in English, will also contribute positively to your reflection on this subject (and many key Italian reference are quoted):
The Politics of the Piazza: The History and Meaning of the Italian Square by Eamonn Canniffe, Ashgate, 2012, 304 p.
Best regards
d.
1. One interesting article I came across has to do with cities that were historically a part of different countries- and how that has shaped and formed the perceptions about the place. The RG link below:
2. Another interesting case study has to do with Bratislava, Norman Davies' book entitled Microcosm
http://www.amazon.com/Microcosm-Norman-Davies/dp/0712693343
Article Place Attachment, Place Identity, and Place Memory: Restorin...
Thank you to Michael, Denis, and Shian Loong. I appreciate all of the great resources.
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