A PARALLEL PATH The connections between Italy and Poland in modern urban planning
MARCO AVANZO
This work wants to explore, through an overall Europe-wide view, the differences and, mainly, the common points between the development of the urban form in Italy and Poland, and how two countries so geographically distant can have so many common traits. The main goal is not to present a detailed description of urbanism in a definite historical period, but is to propose a general view over a span of more than seven hundred years, from the beginning of XIVth century to the end of XXth century. The periodical division follows mainly each century, acknowledging of course the traits that break out from this rigid periodization, and for each century two examples of Italian and Polish cities are presented, with the cities being selected following strong common traits.
Table of Contents 1. THE TRADE YEARS: FROM 1300 TO 1400 ......................................................... 7 1.1. Urban planning in Italy from 1300 to 1400 ....................................................... 9 1.2. Urban planning in Poland from 1300 to 1400 ................................................ 10 1.3. Trade Cities: Florence ............................................................................................ 13 1.4. Trade Cities: Wroclaw ........................................................................................... 15 2. THE MILITARY YEARS: FROM 1400 TO 1500 ................................................ 2.1. Urban planning in Italy from 1400 to 1500 .................................................... 2.2. Urban planning in Poland from 1400 to 1500 ................................................ 2.3. Ideal Cities: Sabbioneta ........................................................................................ 2.4. Ideal Cities: Zamosc ..............................................................................................
17 18 19 21 23
3. THE CHURCH YEARS: FROM 1500 TO 1600 ................................................. 3.1. Urban planning in Italy from 1500 to 1600 ..................................................... 3.2. Urban planning in Poland from 1500 to 1600 ................................................ 3.3. Counter-Reformation Cities: Palermo ................................................................ 3.4. Counter-Reformation Cities: Kalwaria .............................................................
27 28 29 31 33
4. THE INDUSTRY YEARS: FROM 1700 TO 1800 .............................................. 4.1. Urban planning in Italy from 1700 to 1800 .................................................... 4.2. Urban planning in Poland from 1700 to 1800 ................................................ 4.3. New Capital Cities: Turin ................................................................................... 4.4. New Capital Cities: Warsaw ...............................................................................
35 39 41 43 45
5. THE NATION YEARS: FROM 1900 TO 2015 .................................................... 47 5.1. Propaganda Cities: Littoria ................................................................................. 51 5.2. Propaganda Cities: Gdynia .................................................................................. 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400 We, as western culture, consider the period between the middle of XIIIth century and the end of XVth century as the end of the Middle Ages, and thus the beginning of the Modern Era. On a political level, the Modern Era starts, on an european scale, with contrasts between the ancient institutions and concepts with modern ones, embodied in contrasts between the Roman Church and the Empire. The laical part of this quarrel is not just represented by the Emperor, but also by new secular forms of power beyond the Emperor, such as merchant corporations and leagues. Often the deep mutations in technology and culture are occurring simultaneously with fierce territorial wars between various power groups. This period starts, on a demographical level, with a fast increase of population, up until 1348, when the Black Death, the infamous bubonic plague, and the subsequent famines lead to a dramatic decrease of it. Generally speaking, we can find a substantial equilibrium between rural and urban population, even if there are frequent tensions between the two due to the high toll the many famines require on both. We can consider the territorial organization pretty stable: in fact, if before ‘200 it was common to destroy and rebuild a city, now the cities are modified but still remain permanent, just as permanent is the net of infrastructure and commerce that unites them. This net contributes to unify a world that already is becoming smaller after the discoveries in the New World, and becomes a reference point to the new merchant classes. Along with the stability of the cities, also their image is changing, becoming expression of political order: if, before the XIIIth century, the form of the city itself was a symbol of religious and allegorical value (both connected with general imagination, over-territorial, and local imagination, territorial), now the main word is Decoro Urbano. Decoro Urbano is an italian expression that means that the city must maintain an high aesthetic and formal appearance, in order to convey an image of power and organization. In a practical form, Decoro Urbano is meant to keep a particular attention to public safety and hygiene, to fight against arsonists and vandals, to control immigration and emigration, to regulate edifications and transits. All this attention to details could translate in international prestige, and, finally, in the value sets of the new european merchant society, in an increase in power.
The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
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In the years between ‘200 and ‘300, this control over the city was applied just at a corrective level, and not at a planning one, thus producing cities with an autonomous and uncontrolled growth, and an homogeneous and organic outlook. We can firmly say that this process starts in Italy, where we find the most advanced examples of this type of interventions (frequently with canalizations and waters regulation), and later is diffused in all Europe, to appear finally in Poland during the XVth century. The diffusion of this way of thinking the urban management is accompanied by an homogeneous urban planning rulebook, that becomes an essential part of a political action. From the second half of 1200 to the end of 1300 we can find, in western Europe, a great number of newly founded cities, thanks to the economical and demographical expansion, and ideological and cultural changes. This phenomenon is parallel to the growth of older ones, may it be through enlargement or rebuilding of fortifications. After mid ‘300, though, due to the aforementioned epidemics, we see a stop in this process, concluding a pattern that constitutes a general trend, destined to hit Poland later on and continue up until past 1400.
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The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
Urban planning in Italy from 1300 to 1400 We can find in Italy the majority of new foundations in the center-west region of Tuscany, while the most powerful italian cities at the time (Genoa and Venice) are more interested in assuring their power over already existent cities, Milan was in annexations and founding castles and the rest of northern Italy being already past that phase. The tuscan Terre Nuove or Terre Murate (“new lands” or “lands with walls”) are interesting for various reasons: for the link between the viability transformation and Florence’s urban push; for the architect Arnolfo di Cambio’s planning interventions; for the administrative and judiciary topics connected with the expansion; for the evolution of the relationships between commission and execution. As a general trend, these Terre Nuove are founded along important commercial routes in flat zones and, as emanation of a political will, they don’t accept noble dynasties among their citizens and they receive economical help (in form of non-taxation) during their first six years. The urban configuration of these new towns is composed by square or rectangular fortifications with four city doors, one for each cardinal point. Internally, we find a system with two main axis perpendicular to each other, and a main square in the crossing point, plus a net of parallel minor streets to form a chessboard structure, evidently similar to the Cardo-Decumano disposition of ancient roman military colonies.
The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
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Urban planning in Poland from 1300 to 1400 As already stated, Poland is late in the process of the new cities’ foundation compared to the countries of western Europe, while is different from them in terms of lacking the pre-existing roman urban system, so to cause what we can call a truly different form of medieval urban form. This process starts thanks to the push of the King Casimir III the Great (1333-1370), who wants to build a new state reality opposed to all the independence pressures from local nobles through the foundation of 45 new urban centres and the creation of a net of infrastructures and fortifications as a support. As an average, we find that the new small centres rarely exceed the 1000 inhabitants, and generally settle around 600-1000 people each, a little fraction in comparison to the major cities of the time (Poznan 4-500 pop., Gdansk and Krakow 15.000 pop., Wroclaw 20.000 pop.). The process follows a pattern of capillarity along the main commercial routes (thus making the overall territory a transport net with the urban centres acting as nodes), and the new towns manage to remain small yet vital, organized in relation to the local needs. From an organizational point of view, the new towns are born after the king’s permit (Privilegium Locationis) and feel the influx of the near Teutonic Order State in the matter of judicial system and urban implant. The average urban implant has an overall elliptical shape, city doors in number and position related to the territorial routes reaching the city and a longitudinal length of 500-1000 meters. The internal distribution is fairly standardized, with two couples or troikas of main axis perpendicular to each other, forming the main square (Rynek) in the interjection, where we can find the city hall and market buildings. The castle is located along the walls, while the religious buildings are in the least central zones of the city and the monasteries and cloisters are outside the city fortifications. The city overview results organic and rational, with all the buildings built in masonry according to the standards. Although the process of new urban planning is very important, during Casimir’s reign we can find also a huge development of pre-existent cities, both from a map design point of view and from an economic and political one.
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The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
The city themselves are enlarged through the foundation of small satellite centres near the old ones, which will assimilate them (forming the binary New Town - Old Town). Politically speaking, the King’s goal is to transform the agricultural towns in commercial poles, and to reach this objective he empowers the transport net, strengthening fluxes and exchanges, and he founds new universities to pursue prestige and attract investments (just like the founding of the Jagiellonian University in1364). A brilliant example of the main cities’ development is the case of Wroclaw, that will be discussed in more depth later on.
The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
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1 1. Florence in 1493 2. Florence at the beginning of XIVth century 3. Florence in the early XVth century 3
Trade Cities: Florence Florence has a barycentric position in the central-western italian territory of Tuscany, of which is the dominant centre, a role that maintains throughout different leaderships and political struggles: Florence is also the demographic centre of the region, counting 120.000 inhabitants before the plague of 1348, when the population will decrease to 40.000, to reach again in the end of XIVth century the number of 60.000 inhabitants. The city goes by many transformation between ‘200 and ‘300, although following the expansion guidelines of XIIIth century urban expansion: after the construction of the last line of fortifications in 1333, the city occupies 430 hectares, comprehensive of all the new poles born externally to the old walls, some of which are monasteries, like in Wroclaw. At the end of ‘300, we can see the city clearly divided in two parts: the Old Town, located at north of the river Arno, that presents an high density of population and old stacked buildings; the New Town, grown around the first one, both to the north and to the south of the river, that has low density but an higher number of gardens and urban green. The modifications of the city see the unification of building typologies according to social classes of the owners, so to form “corporative” neighbourhoods; the transformations of the old Market Square, in order to adapt to the city’s new image as a commercial pole; the creation, for lower income classes, of zones with linear blocks of houses perpendicular to the same road, created on narrow parcels of roughly five meters. The urban texture follows a hierarchical conception of space in the newly constructed parts of the town, with neighbourhoods each divided in four parts called Gonfaloni, while in the Old Town persists the ancient narrow partition of spaces through stacked buildings and a reticular viability, following the old poles of power (old families with their clients in the same areas), only interrupted by larger public spaces sporting huge volumes opposed to the small XIIIth century houses. The renewing interventions in the Old Town consist in the broadening of those narrow spaces through the creation of Logge, openings in the building’s elevation, which are a common practice during the late ‘300 / early ‘400, and the foundation of small city-owned shops on the river’s bridges, which become a source of income for the city administration and adapt Florence to the rest of Europe, where it is an extensive practice. As a rule, these kind of interventions are not really important numerically speaking, due to the economical weight of the frequent crises, but qualitatively (S.Maria del Fiore church, Old Bridge, Loggia Market) , since they help Florence to reach the statue of influential and modern commercial pole, just like will Wroclaw in Poland. The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
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4 4. Wroclaw’s cathedral 5. Wroclaw’s market square 6. View of Wroclaw in the Middle Ages 5
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Trade Cities: Wroclaw Just like Florence in Italy, during the XIIIth century Wroclaw acquires a protagonist role in Europe, thanks to the city’s position in the centre of major commercial routes that link north and south of Europe, and that connect Italy with the Hanseatic League countries. Wroclaw becomes officially a city in 1241, according to the German Right, and undergoes a lightning development and extension until the middle of XIVth century, when a new fortification is built and the city reaches an extension of 133 hectares, a dimension comparable to the other major European cities. The urban planning reminds the one of Florence’s New Town, in its hierarchical organization of public spaces: the streets are divided into main streets (Platea Aperta), subordinated streets (Platea Clausa), small and narrow streets (Vicus and Angulus), external roads of connection (Publica Strata). These streets, lacking paving until the XIVth century, have a particular V-section with small lateral channels, to ease water and garbage disposal. The internal building net consists in rectangular parcels with 18 meters front widths, ready to be divided in even smaller fractions, and presents a central main market square of notable dimensions (3.5 hectares), comprehensive of a market-dedicated building of 5500 square meters, that reminds the large squares and huge volumes of Florence’s Old Town. The market becomes the hub and the link between the municipal road system and the regional one. The fire of 1272 becomes an occasion of renovation of the city: the vast part of the buildings are rebuilt in masonry, also through a confident push of private construction, an advanced water, sanitary and garbage disposal system is produced, hospitals and public bathrooms are built, energetic infrastructures are erected; the overall image of the city is an ordered and attractive one, and it’s distinctive architectural style is adopted throughout the region, even in Krakow.
The Trade Years: from 1300 to 1400
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The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500 From the end of ‘400 to the first half of ‘500, a novelty appears on the european scene: the lightning development of military architecture, as a consequence to the rapid diffusion of firearms and the growing obsolescence of medieval fortifications. Starting from the campaigns of Charles VIII, first in Italy and France then in the rest of Europe, this branch of the architectural practice has complete priority over all the other kinds of intervention and thus it drains all the economical and intellectual resources (including the brainpower of people like Leonardo da Vinci, Durer, Michelangelo). A generation of military engineers is born. The cities, after the revision of fortifications, become strongholds against potential enemies and all the civil population is involved in the construction and in the defence of the strongholds, effectively acting as an urban militia. This state of necessity of the situation has consequences on the mentality of the nobility, that actuates violent and crude methods to expropriate the lands around the new walls’ tracks, and often builds internal citadels to defend itself against popular revolts. This process of rough destruction and rebuilt causes immense losses to the artistic patrimony of the cities. During the course of the XVIth century, this efforts result vain, because the last medieval municipalities lose their individuality in favour of higher powers (regional aristocratic families, foreign armies, the Church) and this leads to the overall uniformity of the XVIIth century urban form. From a technical point of view, the military urbanization contemplates a circular structure (Radiocentrica), with a Piazza d’armi (Arms’ square) in the centre and straight connections with the walls, in order to create a better defensive mechanism (the ballistic criteria of control are radial). Internally, the roads must be straight and sport everywhere continuous façades (thus creating a sensation of order and discipline). This age of struggles and relentless wars causes disillusion and introversion in the intellectual elites, that find comfort and shelter in the fantastic and utopian fantasies of the città ideali, or ideal towns. The generic traits of the ideal town is the extreme geometrical regularity of the implant through standardized divisions and distances from the walls: the abstraction of the exercise is testified by the fact that never the city is thought in relation with a possible political system, but only in a matter of pure forms. The debate about the ideal city will last for two centuries, but it will also generate very rarely any practical offspring, with the notable exceptions, between the others, of Sabbioneta and Zamosc. The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
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Urban planning in Italy from 1400 to 1500 Following the general european trend, in this period in Italy many city-states lose their independence, producing a strengthening of the role of capital cities and port cities. The situation of crisis leads, anyway, to a recuperation of classic scripts in a totally new context (Vitruvio’s De Architectura) and a development of new technologies, other than a change in the structure of the urban centres. The major capital cities are the first to change, namely Rome with the first street expressly built for military purposes (1499). Another important area is the Padan Valley, with overall monumental interventions that change the relation between building and city (Milan – S.Maria delle Grazie, Brescia – Loggia square – Ferrara – Addizione Erculea). The city of Ferrara is considered the highest effort to create a new urbanism, in its connections between the urban net and the walls, and the relation between its urban form and the residential buildings. Another important case, in the southern part of Italy this time, is Naples, with a famous project of urban restoration. Following broad guidelines, we can say that in ‘500 the lead of the urban planning field is Rome, and around 1544 - 1550 this process, born in Italy, is virtually present in all Europe.
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The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
Urban planning in Poland from 1400 to 1500 In the first seventy years of ‘500, Poland is a growing state, economically, demographically and geographically. The Polish Kingdom is deeply linked to the western commercial circuits and persecutes a politic of stability and peace with the german Emperor while continuously expanding toward East. After the ‘60s – ‘70s time-lapse, the exigencies of the Counter-Reformation lead to a period of war with the Swedish Kingdom, while developing internally as a centralized leadership, with a great focus on the fortification works. The military input is evident in the structure of the new-founded town (see Zamosc), but it is slow and, generally, the small centres remain untouched. Basically, polish urban culture is divided in two instances: one, inheritor of the Italian renaissance influx, is present between the elites of major cities like Krakow; The other, more rooted to the past feudal system, is found in the small rural communities. The most important episode of the century is the founding of Zamosc and the figure of Jan Zamoyski, but another noteworthy event is the foundation of Brody.
The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
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7. Sabbioneta’s urban structure 8. Sabbioneta’s main square 9. Assonometric view of Sabbioneta
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Ideal Cities: Sabbioneta The particularity, and the importance, of the northern italian city of Sabbioneta, is that it conjoins both military and state exigencies. In its original form, Sabbioneta was a small XVth century familiar land, given as a feud from Venice to Gianfranco Gonzaga in 1429. Roughly a century later, in 1554, Gianfranco’s grandnephew Vespasiano, starts the project of a new town with the help of the architect Domenico Giunti. In Vespasiano’s mind, its new city should unite both classical references and military architecture: in fact, the very first thing built is the defensive wall in 1558, and the overall structure is the one of a military citadel. The system is small, compact, easily defensible and nearly similar to a pentagon. The first phase of construction sees the building of permanent fortifications, the palace of the Lord and the creation of incentives for immigration, both economical and cultural (he creates a greek/latin school). The design in this phase is less rigid than the one of the ideal city, in the particular that the main horizontal axis is broken in two points for pragmatic military reasons (military school suggests that the main doors, especially in a small city, should never be on a direct line of fire). Another particularity is the presence of a small asymmetrical part of the city where all of the city’s civic, cultural and symbolic buildings are, designed like a reproduction of a medieval town with an higher detail than the rest of the city, little a miniaturized model city. Sabbioneta fast becomes a manifest of the Town Lord’s power, founded on the land with a familiar leadership shape, a power born from the army, but that finds validation in the administration of the commonwealth. The second phase of construction, starting in 1577, sees the last baluardo built, along with Palazzo del Giardino, Porta Imperiale and an overall aesthetic make-up of the city, with attention to details and materials. The general impression of the city is the one of a precocious Middle Ages Revival, but in a symbolic point of view, Vespasiano puts the fortified walls in defence of its historical and traditional heart, and in this we can consider Sabbioneta one of the few realized examples of Renaissance’s città ideale and one of the few realistic attempts on doing a cultural project in times of crisis.
The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
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10. Collegiata school in Zamosc 11. Zamosc in 1650 12. Assonometric view of Zamosc
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Ideal Cities: Zamosc The polish Renaissance town of Zamosc is, along with Sabbioneta in Italy, with which shares many of its elements, one the few examples of realized città ideale. As in Sabbioneta’s case, also Zamosc exists thanks to the efforts of a local noble, Jan Zamoyski, grown among the italophile polish elite. Its brainchild, Zamosc, is considered an ideal city because it unites rationally the spatial, ideological and architectonic concepts of the italian theories of Rinascimento, other than being recognized as a major european accomplishment of the XVIth century. Even if Zamoyski was moved from political, economical and propagandistic means, the city is a figure of intellectual and moral qualities, and everything in it is connected to a literate concept. Zamosc, planned ahead of time in the minimal details (such as knowing when the weekly markets would be held years before), quickly becomes capital of a large and expanding possession with the Zamoyski family at the centre of it, and the economical base of its power. At its height, the city comprehends a residential castle, an administrative centre of wealth, a fortress, crafts and commerce centres, church and law headquarters, a cultural centre, a superior school and a typography. The city was planned with the ropes measurement system (one rope equals to 45.5 meters) and subdivided in many building areas, a novelty for that age. The structure translates in a clear system: an axial match of the residence with the city, in which the city itself, nearly a square, has a side of 450 meters (ten ropes) and altogether with the residence reaches 600 meters (sixteen ropes). The parcels are rectangular, while there are two perpendicular axis that meet in the main Market square (which is 100 meters x 100 meters). The longitudinal axis cuts through the centre all the way towards the palace, while the transversal one unites three squares (Main square, Salt square, Water square): all the implant undergoes a push toward the palace (like the writer Scamozzi says as “a soul to all the body”), and so do the city doors, since two of them are near the palace, and the last one is directly opposite to it. Outside the walls, there are parcels in which ethnic neighbourhoods and the stock exchange are collocated.
The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
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The ideal of symmetry is respected in the collocation of the Collegiata (religious school) and Academia (civil school), that are symmetrical to the main axis and have a symbolic function of equilibrium. The architectural style is Italian, in the Church of Collegiata (that reflects the aemilian and roman ‘500 architecture), in the city doors (in Toscano Rustico order), in the fortifications that follow the italian system of defence. More than that, the constant presence of arcades are worth to Zamosc the name of “Northern Padua”, which is incidentally the city in which Zamoyski studied. The differentiation from the Italian model, and the novelty, is in the precise subdivision of building areas through parcels that differs in width and length according to the block position.
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The Military Years: from 1400 to 1500
The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600 The XVIIth century starts following a line of continuity with the previous century of crises (both religious and military) and affirmations (both technological and colonial). We can say that the ‘600 is a century of crisis, considering the Thirty Years’ War and the revolts of 1647/48, but also a century that presents the germs of enlightenment. From a social standpoint, we can see the clash between two distinct poles: the scientific, merchant and progressive side, and the ecclesiastic, rural and conservative one. There is a progressive loss of importance of the Mediterranean area in favour of the new northern-central european power. In the urban planning field, the main tendency is to create operas of popular-representational value, thus creating the loss of private and intimate fruition, to reach the goal of getting the consensus of the general population, all through the use of visual propaganda: this situation is a direct result of the tensions between catholics and protestants, and the subsequent Counter-Reformation. The technical solution adopted is the use of continuous façades and arcades, and the buildings adapt themselves to an urban and public logic. Organizational capacity of the leadership is also emphasized by the use of perspectival axis, tridents, general symmetry: the main word in XVIIth century urban design is “Theatricality”. Basically, all Europe follows this tendency, thus levelling itself to a visual and formal code of homogeneity. Among the other principal economical aspects of the century, we find the development of port cities, the growing importance of capital cities, the colonization of the countryside and a growing attention to the choice of materials. A major scientific mentality starts forming concerning the analysis of the urban form, oriented at a selective and critical comprehension of the object of study.
The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600
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Urban planning in Italy from 1500 to 1600 The dogmatic, theoretical and operative basis of the control of the Roman Church over the italian population comes from the second half of ‘500, but it is fully operational only in the first half of the XVIIth century. There is no opposition to the absolute power of the Church, since the military tension is decreased and Spain faces a grim economic crisis, all in advantage of the Church. Instead, the economic crisis brings an increased need for wheat and this results, thanks to the capillary Jesuit propaganda in the countryside, in a total ecclesiastic control, and the capacity of building a large number of churches and civic buildings. The link between the Church and the country is strengthened, while in the cities Church and the last remaining feudal powers divide among themselves the best city fronts and the most expensive buildings with the explicit purpose to eradicate the merchant class. The city lives around the clergy system and any municipal autonomy is destroyed. We see a Jesuit monopoly over culture, politics and economy, new churches and convents take the place of old civic buildings, all while the population becomes just a mean to produce consensus.
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The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600
Urban planning in Poland from 1500 to 1600 Between the last quarter of ‘500 and the first half of ‘600, there is a huge development of “private cities”, cities founded by powerful magnates, mainly in the east side of the country. These new cities are heavily fortified and have a rigorous and geometric implant, thanks to the italian influence on the country’s elites. An important factor, in the XVIIth century, is the swedish invasion and the influence of their urban culture in the occupied territories. It is possible to divide the polish cities in two distinct models: The first is the Italian model with polygonal walls and a citadel, a radio-centric and orthogonal tissue, with the Town Lord’s palace in the centre and the civic hall on the main square, a formal code that guarantees nobility and recognizability. The second type is a smaller implant in a cross-shape, with a large central square and an orthogonal division of the parcels, an implant that we find inside or near pre-existent cities. While all the southern-eastern territories of the kingdom are ravaged, during ‘600, by the pillaging of Tartars and Turks, by farmer revolts and wars between noble families, the fortified cities drastically increase of value, also thanks for the minor costs of building. In general, thus, polish urban evolution in the century is dependent from both the Italian models and from the medieval tradition of new towns: not much has changed from the previous century.
The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600
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13 13. Engraving of Vigliena square 14. Particular of Vigliena Square 15. Vigliena square in XXth century
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Counter-Reformation Cities: Palermo Vice-Reign of Sicily’s capital city, Palermo, undergoes, between the end of ‘500 and the beginning of ‘600, a series of radical urban interventions that completely modify the city’s urban implant: the lengthening of the old Cassaro axis, the construction of a new perpendicular axis, the new Maqueda road. This new “cross of streets” brings to the extreme consequences the historical Old Town “reduction” policy, that has the goal to simplify the city’s system to serve better the propagandistic exigencies of control and dominion of the spanish government and of the ecclesiastic hierarchies. Palermo’s case is the most drastic case of transformation of a Mediterranean city of that period, and it’s one of the most revealing about the Counter-Reformation concept of urban element as an instrument of persuasion and repression of the social forces. Amongst all the late ‘500 cultural elements present in the realization, the most important is the rhetorical and celebratory component, mainly present in the construction of a round space, Vigliena Square, that in 1609 concludes in a theatrical and bold form the crossing between the city’s two main arteries. The new square negates the complexity of the medieval Old Town, cast out from the public space perception, in favour of a schematic subdivision of the city in four parts and a central pole where the glory of the Counter-Reformation culture is exalted in a theatrical space. Of course, upon construction, this opera of propaganda and persuasion is enriched by enthusiastically comments and poetries of “official” artists, who rush to underline the connections between this new square and its noble ancestors, namely the fori system of ancient Rome and the classical culture in general. The example of Palermo is emblematic to understand the path of Baroque urban planning, not just as a sterile rhetorical exercise, but as a political instrument of control.
The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600
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17 16. Kalwaria Zebrzydowska 17. Gora Kalwaria Original Plans 18. Kalwaria Pszowska 18
Counter-Reformation Cities: Kalwaria In Counter-Reformation Poland, an original aspect is the tendency to transfer on an urban scale the path of Via Crucis, through a series of chapels and temples, and materialized in a theatrical ritualistic procession: this element is called Kalwaria, and the most notable examples are Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Pakosc, Wejherowo, Paclaw, Gora Kalwaria, Vilna, all built between 1602 and 1670. The most singular and explicative case is Gora Kalwaria, founded in 1670 by Stephan Wierzbolowski, Poznan’s bishop. The structure is the one of a small cruciform rural town, of which the main road is set on the Stations of the Cross with a number of small monasteries. The parcels on the main road are the ones of a long square shape, and towards the S. Cross Church (that dominates the main axis) there are square growing gardens and yards. The case of polish Kalwaria is interesting to understand the deep link between the city of ‘600 and the church’s rituals and propaganda, that take a physical form in the structure of the city itself.
The Church Years: from 1500 to 1600
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The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800 Around the half of the XVIIIth century, the economical and social role of the city becomes broader, and the dimensions inherited by the medieval urban system are no more capable of satisfying the new needs and the demographic growth. So, while the urban theories of Renaissance about the ideal city have exhausted their propulsive force and are no longer useful to the renewing currents, the first elements of new theoretical propositions about the critic of the urban body start blooming. The debate is focused on the necessity of utility and practicality of the city in a more modern way, since the times are not ready yet for a radical discussion about the city as the spatial place where the social clashes are held, while the ferments of revolution are slowly growing. During this period of time, we find two leading countries, yet different in their characters, in the evolution of urban planning’s debate: England and France. In England the italian classicism could never really sow, while are stronger the medieval heritage and the dutch and french influence, so we find a partial and discontinuous penetration of the classical vocabulary: layout models developed with high formal freedom, historically contrasting particulars forcibly assembled, and an overall eclecticism in the architectural/urban planning practice. All the strength of english eclecticism is a direct child of the climate of liberality and freedom that permeates the island, a climate in which palladian ideas and neoclassical revivals are already growing. In France the political situation, with the near-absolute power of the King, is very different: the architecture is the official State Art, and the centralized administration of the culture makes the style and models of papal Rome the canon of the French cities. Here the ideas’ fermentation struggle to free itself from the dogmatic power of the State. These two different cultural situation spawn, anyway, similar theoretical results, as in the refuse of both Baroque’s irrationality and academic dogma in favour of a critical work on architecture as service of the renewal of civic and social values. This enlightenment attitude of social and political involvement will produce the men that will take the Basteille in 1789, crushing the Ancien Régime, and the very same men that later will stand behind Napoleon in his european campaigns.
The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800
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During the XVIIIth century and at the beginning of the XIXth, the main conception of urban intervention is the monumental reorganization of the city made possible by the power of absolute regimes, reorganization focused on prestige and the display of power through the building of neoclassical civic temples and boastful promenades, like it happens in Petersburg, Warsaw, Turin, Paris, etc… While we can still see the results of this logic in the capital cities of our time, this model of urban intervention will rapidly fall into a crisis caused by the growing of industrial society and by the incapacity of the model to assure an homogeneous civic level. Along with the political changes that modify the nations’ landscape in Europe during the XIXth century (with the blooming of national identities), other factors are important to understand the city of ‘800: the Industrial Revolution, that stretches from ‘700 to ‘800 and completely transforms every aspect of urban life; the technological innovations, both regarding communications and the architectural science; the upgrowth of urban bourgeois, in the century that testifies its coming to power; the birth of philosophies as socialism and communism, and the germs of aggressive nationalism; the intensifying of class struggles; the conception of world-wide politics and colonialist interests. All these factors concur in the birth of the complex organism that is the XIXth century city, a complex organism that here is briefly summed in its more typical parts: - Monumental Centre: the new dominant classes inherit and monopolize the codes of past architecture, translating the monuments and temples of previous regimes in a form that can symbolize their new power, that legitimize their dominion. Usually the use of monuments is tightly linked to the construction of a national identity, may it be forcibly or not. - Market and Distribution Centre: the places apt to the commerce and enrichment are put in a central zone of the city, in a symbolic take of nobility of the value of production. The market centre differentiates itself from its medieval counterpart since it is not held in a simple square anymore, but its more representative elements are the commercial arcades, roofed spaces that become the focal point of the daily life. - Popular Neighbourhoods and Bourgeois Neighbourhoods: the division of classes becomes even more evident in the physical fracture and separation between central upper and middle class zones and proletarian ones, and yet again this division repeats itself in the urban peripheries.
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The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800
- Recreational Spaces: the capitalistic conception of time brings to the separation between work time and free time, places where it is possible to find values of sociality disappeared from the industrial system of work. Examples of this category are parks, gardens, zoos, cinemas, cafÊs. - Mobility Spaces: the development of new technologies such as the train leave a mark on the layout of the city, that now has to consider appropriate spaces to position stations and all the commercial attraction that they have, capable of modifying entire neighbourhoods. Let it not be forgot the birth of other mobility spaces such as underground railways and hotels. - Expositions: they are the synthesis and celebration of a city’s productive and technological capacities, other than being places where all the elements of a city are combined to be shown to the world. They can have a great impact on the aspect and layout of a city, sometimes modifying it permanently, as it is the case of Paris Expo 1889 and its temporary Tour Eiffel. - Public Hygiene and Order Structures: they are the places where the dominant classes express their power and actuate the repression on the more problematic exponents of the lower classes. Among this group there are prisons, correctional institutes, mental health institutes, hospitals. In a broad sense, we can see that many of the characters of a modern city as we know it were born in this century, and some of them present still current problems.
The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800
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Urban planning in Italy from 1700 to 1800 While the intellectuals of the time like Goethe refer to Italy in terms of classical heritage and overall beauty, the reality of the situation in ‘700 for the country is far more grim: Italy has lost its role of artistic and architectonic lead of the western world and the conservative influence of the Roman Church and the laic local powers led the country to be desperately behind the rest of Europe in technical and technological progress. After Napoleon’s troops descend to northern Italy to establish the Cisalpine Republic in 1796, we find that the contact with the european ideas has become closer, at least in the urban centres, and the expressions of the enlightenment culture like newspapers, civic meetings and theatres start spawning. Logically, Napoleon’s intent is not entirely humanistic, so while he favours the spreading of enlightenment ideas, he also cuts for Italy a subordinate role to France’s interests, through urban and territorial planning. Part of the territorial control is the viability reorganization, with a hierarchical system of classification: the First Class roads are the ones who link the different territories to Paris, the Second Class roads are the regional streets inherited from the single States, while the Third Class roads comprehend the local viability. The Emperor also builds ex-novo the Paris-Milan link, the Monginevro and Moncenisio passes in the Alps. Along with road development, he also strengthen the transportations and postal services system, in order to exercise his control in a faster and more effective way. This modernization push is not limited to the viability, while Napoleon effectively imposts the control over italian cities over the goal of operative efficiency and a general urban reorganization. It must be noted that, at Napoleon’s arrival, most if not all of the major italian cities were in a century long cultural and architectonic stasis, with Rome in an idle decadence, Florence that had not built a new road in three centuries and Milan still similar in its urban tissue to a large medieval town. After Napoleon’s downfall and Wien’s Congress in 1815, Italy passes through a 30 year period in which the contrasts between the domination of foreign powers on italian soil and the independence and nationalistic movements reach explosive levels, until in 1848 large parts of the territories are freed and later in 1861 Italy becomes a unitary State with Turin capital city.
The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800
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The new State is in reality an underdeveloped and substantially agricultural state (70% of the population), with large parts of the territory, especially in the South, chronically poor and ignorant: this difficult situation pushes the elites of the Nation to pursue an all-costs industrialization in a country that is not yet ready for it, resulting in a harsh vexation of the working classes, and, in the long run, in a dramatic broadening of the differences between the rich and industrialized North and the poor and undeveloped South, a problem still present in XXIth century Italy. It must be noted, however, that all italian cities present problems of adaptation to the demographic and industrial growth, since they still exhibit basically a medieval implant, so most of the urban intervention of the age consist in the indiscriminate demolition of the old walls and an unregulated expansion toward the countryside, spawning thus nameless and soulless peripheries still present today in most italian large cities.
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The Industry Years: from 1700 to 1800
Urban planning in Poland from 1700 to 1800 In Poland, during the XVIIIth century, the King Stanislav Poniatowski’s intervention follows the enlightenment’s guidelines, combined with a certain paternalistic and corporative attitude. The general rule of work is large and low implants, with low density and an overall Baroque layout. Important is the renewal of the State’s capital city, Warsaw: the redoing of the access axis to the King’s castle (Augustus’ Axis), the plans of rebuilding the castle and parts of the Old Town (unrealized), the activities of the Boni Ordinis commission that produce specific urban interventions. After the Wien Congress of 1815, the Kingdom of Poland (now just one fifth of the precedent territorial dimension after russian annexations) is put under the dominion of the Czar Alexander I, who start a constitutional regime with large concessions to civil liberties, such as freedom of press, the election of a Diet and freedom of association. This situation is favourable enough for Poland to witness a phase of economic and industrial growth, sustained by a solid administrative system and a wise financial politic, a phase that last until the ‘30s of the XIXth century. After a brief phase of stasis, in 1870 Poland witnesses a sparkling industrial development, helped by the tight links with the large russian market, a fact that puts the attention on the relation between the two nations that, between positive and negative moments, will endure until the end of the XXth century.
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20 19. Turin in 1834 20. Turin in 1861 21. Turin in 1864 21
New Capital Cities: Turin Turin, future capital of Italy, between the end of ‘700 and the beginning of ‘800 is the capital city of the Sardinia Reign, one of the few advanced states in the italian territory. The city has already a solid urban implant inherited from the XVIIIth century, thus the expansion at the beginning of ‘800, motivated by a population growth, proceeds in orderly fashion. Between 1825 and 1830, many important interventions are held to modify the city layout, such as the building of Vittorio Emanuele I square (now Vittorio Veneto square), the Mother of God church, the Bonsignori church, the Carlo Felice square: all these interventions are inserted in the XVIIIth century tradition of order and monumentality. Around the ‘50s comes a new wave of interventions, differentiated from the previous in how some of the old building restrictions are starting to be lifted, such as now there is not a mandatory building standard anymore. Between the ‘50s and the ‘60s, a sudden expansion interests the major development directions, in particular the south-eastern: the expansion is carried through an orthogonal net and lacks any suggestions about the different uses of the soil already parcelled. We can say that from now on the principal engine of the expansion is profit and building gain, symptoms of a capitalistic and privatized mentality. Turin undergoes, in a sense, an exemplar path of change from being a typical ‘700 capital city with its large and elegant boulevards, to become a modern metropolis that struggles with the drastic changes carried by the industrial revolution, just like many other european cities, of whose Warsaw is another example.
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22 22. Augustus II Axis in Warsaw 23. Warsaw fortification in 1621 24. Theatre square in early ‘900 23
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New Capital Cities: Warsaw While the capital of Poland, at the beginning of the XVIIIth century, presents itself as a complex and irregular puzzle composed by individual units in plots of different size and shape, after the interventions of King Poniatowski before, and later at the beginning of the polish industrial revolution, Warsaw becomes, at the end of the XIXth century, one of the major european capitals and largest metropolis of the time. As already stated, at the end of ‘700 the main axis of access to the castle and a series of specific interventions change the face of the city, but it’s after 1870 that a process of industrialization brings development and expansion to Warsaw, thanks to the addition of new neighbourhoods in all the directions, out of the central implant defined in the first three decades of ‘800. Towards south, the city has an ordered configuration based on two directional axis that cut each other perpendicularly: Marszalkowska street, three kilometre long stretched toward a north-south direction, constituting the commercial artery, and Aleja Jerozolimska street, easth-westbound. In the interjection of these two arteries lies the central train station. There is also a pretty evident difference between the industrial downtown and the bourgeois suburbs, while the zones around the city are presided by the Russian troops, that have their headquarters in a fortified citadel north of the city on the Vistula river, built after the 1830 insurrections. In general, we can say that Warsaw shares with Turin, as a capital city, its large and monumental promenades that, other than being a reminder of the ruler’s power, are also an effective instrument of military control over possible insurrections.
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The Nation Years: from 1900 to 2015 In the XXth century, many of the themes of urban planning are common to all countries of Europe, since the world-wide range of the political (and architectonic, in the case of modernism) events. When considering the first half XXth century, we must distinguish two different phases: a first phase of artistic and architectural growth and creativity, that spawns from the beginning of the century right until around 1930; a second phase, from 1930 to 1945, when the advent of radical militaristic regimes and the winds of war are blowing over Europe, a phase of architectural stasis and, in some cases, quiet reprisal of old formal codes. In the first period, the birth of modern movements in both arts (Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism) and architecture (the Modern Movement with the influence of Bauhaus, De Stijl, Le Corbusier), is in a symmetrical opposition to the horrors and destructions of the First World War and the appearance of Fascism and Nazism in embryonic form, and the November Revolution in Russia. In the second, while the Modernist Movement is diffusing all over the world, the official architecture of the regimes is an anachronistic and propagandistic one, often associated with the classical repertory. A major thematic of the urban planning dialogue is the dire need of housing consequent to the destructions of WWI and the world-wide economical crisis of ’29: among the possible solutions we must remember the proposition of Le Corbusier and Lloyd Wright of garden cities with high density building/towers, a proposition that will reveal itself unsatisfactory, considering the low quality and functionality of post-WWII high-rise buildings, or “projects”. It must also be considered the growing contribution to the discipline of urban planning of fields of study, such as sociology, spatial economy, geography and urban history. From a political standpoint, this half of century sees the collapse of the old ‘800 empires (Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires), the arrive on the scene of new political expressions (USSR, National-Socialist Germany, Fascist Italy, Second Republic of Poland), with their attempts to form a collective identity (see the case of Gdynia and Littoria), and an overall loss of influence of Europe in favour of the rising United States. This is the world at the beginning of the Second World War.
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After six years of destruction and massacres, Europe is: destructed on its major parts, with a large number of historical cities in crumbles and an urgent housing problem to solve; Torn apart between western countries and eastern countries, following the logics of Cold War; Many of its countries are in need of a social elaboration of what happened (and in the case of Germany and Italy, elaboration of its own guilt) and how it all relates to their national values; in a diffuse economical crisis. The housing problem is, surprisingly, solved relatively fast, thanks to the inheritance of the modern movement and its practical and fast solutions to the building problems (let’s just think about the role of concrete structures have in the speed and precision of works), but it also causes the side effects of homogeneity and a loss of identity in many parts of the world. This period, right after WWII, marks the appearance of limitless urban peripheries composed by high-rise buildings, deprived of any identity and perfused by a sense of alienation, a problem still unsolved in the XXIth century. From an economical point of view, while the western european countries take advantage of the United States’ help plan, the Marshall Plan, and reconstruct themselves by being able to actuate a swift recovery and enrichment in a 20 years’ time, the eastern european ones are kept under the direct power of the USSR, and in many cases forcibly converted from a rural economy to an industrial one, regardless of the costs in terms of social forces. Politically, great importance lies in the first international unions between the countries of western Europe, amongst these the newly formed European Union. Another factor of social and political weight, are the waves of immigration towards the western countries from their former colonies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The century concludes ideally with the dissolution of USSR in 1991 and the entrance of the eastern block’s countries in the european community. Many of the problems concerning the european city that presented themselves during the XXth century, like role of immigrants, social alienation, loss of identity, traffic, pollution etc. are, now of 2015, still unsolved.
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The Nation Years: from 1900 to 2015
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26 25. Aerial view of Littoria 26. Littoria’s general plans 27. View of Littoria’s centre 27
Propaganda Cities: Littoria The birth of Littoria is deeply connected with the works of reclamation of the near sea swamp lands in the center-western region of Lazio, works that are one of the main points of fascist propaganda. After the land is dried, a series of small new towns is planned in the territory, in order to give home to the farmers that will need to work these lands. The first one of these towns is Littoria. The founding of the city is announced by fascist leader Benito Mussolini in April 1932, and according to the Dux’s ideas, the construction must the swift and fast. The scheme of the implant (designed by the architect Oriolo Frezzotti) is a radio-centric net, a pretty traditional scheme, since originality is not an important factor, but the precedence is given to the speed of works (speed, movement and a confident action are main points of fascist propaganda). In fact, the works are finished in less than one year (December 1932), and Littoria becomes in 1934 the main city of the region, other than being the model for the other new towns built by the fascist regime, such as Sabaudia, Pontinia, Pomezia, etc. From an initial prevision of 3000/5000 inhabitants, Littoria is given in 1935 a new plan to accommodate even 50.000 inhabitants. The founding of the city, and in general the works of soil reclamation in the region, are among the biggest successes of Mussolini in terms of propaganda: they convey the values of bold architectonic realizations, respect of deadlines, simple and busy farm life, economical results and the overall capacity of society and territory planning. It must be noted that, in the long run, many of these results are nothing more than empty propaganda, since there is not really any economical growth from the operation nor any social movement from a farm life still conceived in an backwards mentality.
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28
28. Gdynia in 1926 29. Modernist architecture in Gdynia 30. View of Gdynia 29
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Propaganda Cities: Gdynia The construction of a new town requires the construction of an identity that defines it and gives it uniqueness. Between the two wars in Central Europe, identity is an issue. After World War I there are new borders, new countries and new alliances, so a process of validation these new entities is needed, a process based on traditional and national myths, but also an ideology of modernity and progress. The Second Republic of Poland is founded in November 1918, and sees itself as an ideal descendent of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared at the end of the XVIIIth century. The new Poland needs to fortify its status as a maritime state, with its access to the Baltic Sea seen as a necessary “window to the world” and as a connection with the numerous polish community in the United States. The place selected for its new symbolic town are the newly gained territories around the Free City of Gdansk (which conserves its german soul): the building of the new port of Gdynia has thus a high priority for economical and propagandistic reasons. The construction begins in 1920, while in 1924 it gains boost thanks to state helps, leading to a rapid expansion of the port and the city. In 1926, to Gdynia, with 6000 inhabitants, is given the status of city, and subsequently begins the project of a 60.000 inhabitants enlargement, with a clear separation between industrial and residential buildings, with the latter divided by professional and financial status. In the project, the traffic system is synchronized with the national railways. The project designers, Roman Felinski and Adam Kuncewicz, are the firsts to incorporate sea shores in the urban layout (element of strong symbolism), although they fail to predict the rapid expansion of the port. The internal architecture is an original mixture of Baroque, Renaissance and Art Deco in the city centre, and Vernacular and Zakopane in the residential areas. From the late ‘20s the city architecture becomes modernist, a conservative modern for churches and an aggressive modern for port buildings: emblematic is the project of the Maritime Basilica in the port, a structure reminding a three mast ship (symbol of the three reunited parts of Poland) which would have gained a prominent role on Gdynia’s skyline.
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In 1932 a second urban planning takes into account the city’s growth, and emphasizes the connection between the sea and the city with a long pier as a continuation of the city’s main axis. In 1935/36 a third plan for 250.000 inhabitants is designed, with a new industrial canal and new satellite zones. In these years Gdynia has become a symbol of national recovery and independence, a subject for films, poems and novels, an essential element of the official polish propaganda, both nationally and internationally.
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The Nation Years: from 1900 to 2015
Bibliography Guidoni, Enrico. 1982. Storia dell’Urbanistica. Bari : Editori Laterza. Kowalczyk, Jerzy. 1986. Zamość, città ideale in Polonia. Roma : Ossolineum Editore. Martyn, Peter. 2007. The City in Art. Warsaw : IS PAN.
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This work was wrote during my first semester abroad in Poland for the Erasmus student exchange program, and it was the final test in the course of Urban Design III. The work was awarded by Prof. Jarosław Szewczyk of Politechnika Bialostocka with the highest grades.
Marco Avanzo
Architecture - Design Mail: marcoavanzo@gmail.com Linkedin: https://it.linkedin.com/pub/marco-avanzo/ba/837/619 Issuu: http://issuu.com/marcoavanzo