![]() ![]() About a quarter the city’s medieval center was virtually destroyed by the 4-day “Great Fire” in 1842, followed by World War II Allied bombing that decimated the remaining historic city. Visitors looking for Old World Europe appeal will not find it it Hamburg. Here in Norway nature is the norm, whereas in many other places it is the cultivated land that people take for granted.” - Sverre Fehn, Architect ![]() “ The nature of Norway is nature untamed by cultivation. The Norwegian people, isolated and callous, worked through the impossible extremes of nature, developing a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding environment and created a nationalistic attitude for the future. Historically, Norway has been mired in poverty, dependent on the export of natural resources (fishing, whaling & timber), without developing urbanization, and in political subjection to it's Scandinavian neighbors. The land area is deeply cut by the long, narrow inlets of fjords and dominated by a mountainous terrain containing some of the world's largest glaciers, making only 3% of the entire country arable for cultivation. Norway is a country dictated by the harsh expansive wilderness that is spread over an area almost the size of Japan. ![]() Perceived economic neglect by the central government (Valencia had the lowest investments in Spain) the city took charge - with increasing worldwide capital gains, cheap available credit and pride in turning a once little-considered place to becoming a cutting edge city - the Valencian government began to invest heavily on large-scale development and urban ‘beautification’ projects throughout the city with ambitions on gaining international interest and establishing itself as the ‘cultural capital’ of Spain.Ĭase Study : Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts Toward the end of the last millennium, the city that was widely overlooked by its larger urban siblings for so long was ready to mature. However, laying on the fertile banks of the Turia River on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the city has always been a centralized and sought-after resource with strong maritime connections to the rest of Europe. Spain’s third-largest city has long waned in the shadows of neighboring metropolitan areas - Madrid (political capital) and Barcelona (economic capital). What was left behind was a preserved, but aging medieval city center. Regardless of rapid maritime modernization to the area and a re-establishment of an oceanic connection, by 1900 Bruges had lost three-quarters of its population, with the majority of foreign trading houses moving to neighboring Antwerp. However, by the early 1500s, the Zwin channel would begin to silt and the immediate decline in the city’s economic activity would soon follow. For the following three centuries Bruges’ urban fabric morphed into a cultural condenser, eagerly welcoming foreign merchants as the epicenter for established northern and southern trade routes. Notably referred to as ‘The Venice of the North’, Bruges has enjoyed a long and successful economic history as a strategic trading center dating back to the 12th century when a natural channel (the Zwin inlet) emerged off the Flemish coast, allowing the medieval city direct access to the North Sea coast. ![]()
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