Cologne Cathedral in Germany has an annual building maintenance budget of 6.6 million €. Which is only half the story, as they have to have people trained with historical methods to replace things. At least the construction "ended"* in 1880, so there's newer documentation... but it began in 1248 (with construction halting 1528-1823), so the old stuff... not so much luck. * it's one of those places where being done at one end means you can begin at the other end again. Local legend is the world ends if the cathedral is ever really finished.
Wow that's a huge amount of money, although its a truly spectacular Cathedral! We have a similar system where I am with `Historic Environment Scotland`. They train all their own apprentices in traditional methods of construction, solely to work on historic buildings and monuments.
To elaborate, they have the "Dombauhütte", which is kind of their own construction company which is exclusively busy with the maintenance of the cathedral. You can book a guided tour through and over the roofs of the cathedral where one of the stone masons or architects will show you around and explain about the history and the architecture. Depending on the specialty of your guide you get a different perspective. It's a spectacular tour which partially leads you through the spires on the outside. Not recommended if you have trouble with vertigo.
This is why, whenever we vacation abroad, we allow a significant part of each day unplanned, just to be able to stroll and gaze at the city. One of my favourites is to stroll around near the end of the afternoon or early evening during the magic hour when the lights are coming up and people are starting to relax from the working day. Just beautiful.
Here in Sweden they have a law of "protection of cultural heritage buildings" They are not allowed to be defaced or changed. If they are to be renovated they have to be fixed keeping the heritage with "more or less" ORIGINAL material and style. If it is so bad that it has to for safety reasons be taken down it has to be rebuilt the same preserving as much of the old material as possible.
8:00 fun fact about thoses tower of Bologna; It is believed that the construction of those towers was merely a "flexxing" competition between two powerful families. There were a lot more towers, but I believe they all collapsed at some point, these two being the only remaining, and the in danger of collapsing aswell.
Hahahah! I believe it... And I can even see it happening. Sitting in 1500's era in some cafeteria and getting to an argument with the "other rich guy" from same city. Well I'll build a huge tower. Really? I'll do even bigger tower. ❤😂
I think in various cities the local medieval governments decided to put some limits to the height of towers, to put a stop to the dangerous showcase/competition of economic/political wealth the towers were.
Same with the skyscrapers in NYC! Mine is bigger! Oh yeah? Watch this! But when you get to a certain height, it costs more per square feet to get higher. Just big dick competition.
There are still 24 towers in Bologna standing. The two most famous ones are just the tallest one and the 4th tallest among those 24 surviving ones. They were built by many families from two political factions.
In Utrecht they just finished a 5 year restauration project of the Dom Tower, build between 1321 and 1382. It's way smaller (by volume) and less intricate than the Leuven City Hall. Its restauration cost €37.4 million, and amazingly that was €1.5 million under budget. During the restauration before this one they put a real size image of the Apollo rocket on the scaffolding to promote the 1986 space expo that was in Utrecht.
The white car at 3:15 is a Morgan +4, a company famous for their roadsters and their unique partial wood frame/chassis construction. This construction method has a lot of historical significance since the British fighter plane "Spitfire" (considered most famous/integral plane to defend Britain in WW2) was built on a wooden frame with a carburetted supercharged 27L (1.650 cubic inches) V12, the Rolls-Royce Merlin making 1000hp in 1936 on 87octane aviation fuel, 1300hp from 1940 onward and closer to 1800hp at the end of the war with 150/100octane on the same engine. Phew, totally managed to keep my plane nerding out to a minimum on this one amirite
There was an old Pub called the Crooked House in Staffordshire , it was demolished by its new owners without permission Because of this they have been taken to court and could go to prison if they do not rebuild it in exactly the same conditions it was in before the demolition, they must include as much as possible of the materials of the original building
Here in the UK my brother-in-law is a Master Thatcher. He has re-thatched countless old buildings over the years, mainly cottages, but some have been from the 1500s.
Belgium is so underrated, Leuven, Ghent, Dinant... And the obvious but extremely touristy Bruges. Brussels is fine too, but can be skipped because the other cities in the country do it better.
Leuven Town Hall was made this way because Brussels went BIG, they couldn't stay behind. Always competition between Brussels, Leuven and Antwerp for bigger, more sculpture, richer, more gold.
I'm not from across the pond but another killer or older buildings is probably shopping mall establishments I would wager. Granted they are often put up on the outskirts of population centers so maybe they largely end up popping up elsewhere but.. yeah. Commercial developments ... well there's a Swedish word - Förfula - as far as I can determine there isn't a direct translation but if I had to make up a word it would be uglify. As in to make things uglier. Even if you like modern architecture malls are, by and large in my experience, just shallow, obnoxious and soulless hunks of glass and steel that are built to purpose - Mass consumption - rather than with aesthetic concerns for the general area in mind.
Many cities have minimum parking requirements for buisinesses, so it is impossible to open one without tearing down neighboring (old) buildings for parking facilities. It's a shame, since it really 'uglifies' and deminishes the reasons to go downtown...
@@la-go-xy I live not far from the Roman city of Bath in the UK. The solution there is the out of town park-and-ride bus service, which works brilliantly.
@4:00 Completely agree that the mixture of old and new side-by-side is often amusing. For instance, the church of St Dunstan-in-the-East in London was built in c.1100 and is now surrounded by skyscrapers. There are still fragments of the Roman wall that once circled the city too. So much of Europe is like that.
One big problem with medieval cities was that the buildings were very close to each other and mostly built from wood, so one can imagine what happened when a house fire started. I grew up in Finland's second oldest city, which suffered from several big fires over the centuries and the last big one was in 1760. At that time 2/3 of the town burnt down, so even though the town was founded in the 14th century, very few buildings are older than 250 years and the Old Town is only a very small part of the city today.
The painter Jheronimus Bosch painted hell so very well because he saw 1/3 of his town go up in flames around 1490. Though roofs should already have tiles and no flame-able covers.
It is irritating how some people generalize their little niche as the world norm. Do you think the majority of medieval cities were built like in Finland? Please visit the cities that mattered on those times, they are way south.
Yep, I been living my whole life in the oldest city in Finland which suffered couple of huge fires too, and basically burned down whole city, there is one museum area with the old medieval buildings still that survived the fires, Turku Cathedral is also one of the oldest buildings in Finland (there is few other ones that are older), although it started as wooden building, burned and rebuilt etc few times, also Turku Castle too. They are both like 700-800 years old
Many houses were wood frame in Germany, even those of wealthy merchants... London is known to have burnt down... However, churches were often of stone, sometimes brick. Somewhat later, rich people in middle Europe often built from stone to impress. You might find more old wood frame buildings in smaller towns where war and fires had not hit that much.
“In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.”
In Spain the end of the Middle Age is the Discovery of América, in 1492, the 12 of Octover. In the rest of countries is the fall of Constantinople. Sorry for my bad english. I am spaniard.
And then think about all the many buildings built during Roman empire and they still stand. Romans knew how to build sturdy constructions thats for sure. 🤣
there are literally thousands of very old and decorated buildings in hundreds of cities in europe. you couldn't see them irl in a lifetime even if you saw one every minute for 50 years
In Croatia where I live in the Split area has a mix of Roman Empire and medieval architecture. The city centre is basically a palace of a Roman Emperor. Although not as much in its original state but still a lot of it still can be seen. Its a bit over 1700 years old. It still blows my mind although i am used to see it almost on daily basis 😂
In Denmark we have lots of old buildings too. When some of the buildings had to be removed they rebuild them in: Den gamle by, Arhus/ The old town, Arhus. There are lots of videos from the old town here on YT.
Libraries have a significant place in Finnish culture and architecture: "AALTO - Official Trailer", "Alvar Aalto. The most famous nordic architect. Vyborg library project" and "The Most Popular Stool of All Time | Behind The HYPE: Stool 60". Discussing the architectural sights in Helsinki: "15 Must-See Architecture in the City Centre of Helsinki, Finland". On more traditional building style: "Oldest Log Cabin in America for Sale in New Jersey", "Traditional Finnish Log House Building Process" and "Traditional finnish log house 1988 and the same house 2017".
In April 2024 a Building called Børsen, burned down, it was build in the years 1619-1623 & was our goods/stock exchange up until 1974. & a place where lots of arts was stored since. This was considered the finest example of Nederland renaissance in Denmark & a protected building, as well as part of our cultural heritage The project of rebuilding it is estimated to take 2 years & cost more than 150M USD.
When you get a chance to visit Europe, Belgium has some great architecture (indeed, in Brussels many buildings have a plaque with information about the architect) - you’ll particularly like Antwerp, Ghent and Brugge. And hey, if you get to Stockholm, I’d be happy to show you around!
That mural on the blank facade is located in Poznań (Poland) between Rondo (Roundabout) Śródka and Ostrów Tumski (its an isle district). The interesting thing here is that those blank facades you may see sometimes in Poland are due to WW2 destruction. Some buildings had to be teared down and the blank wall you see is the separating wall between 2 buildings. This part of the old buildings does not fall under the law of monument conservation. This makes it so popular for murals since it doesnt need to comply with any conservation laws. Something that has become very popular in Poland is that companies will sponsor beautiful murals in exchange of incorporated / small logos in the murals. Its a win for everyone: The city gets prettier since it loses those ugly blank spaces, so the general public benefits. The city council doesnt need to pay or pretty much do anything for the city to become prettier. The owners of the buildings dont need to pay for it and the value of the building goes up. Artists get free space, tools and resources to make publicly available art and more often than not they get paid for it too. Companies get for cheap advertising space and good PR like in the example you showed - Terravita is a chocolate manufacturer. It saves money and resources, because the alternative is cloning the front facade onto this blank wall for an absurd amount of money while there is always the possibility that at some point the building that stood their might be rebuild sooner or later what would be waste of money and resources. This is society at its peak. Everyone gets along. Everyone wins. PS: There are hundreds if not thousands legal murals like this in Poland. PS2: My friend Karol actually took part in the creation of this particular mural in Poznań.
@@Julie-qc8cd Yes, Skara Brae on mainland Orkney is the the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe, dating from 3200bc. The knap of Howar, on the island of Papa Westray is the oldest with radio carbon dating it at 3700bc. 👍
Yes, these wooden and cob houses exist everywhere in France, I myself live in this type of house, it was built according to municipal archives at the end of the Hundred Years War (between France and England) around the 1450s but fortunately with the comfort of the 21st century.😊😊
My lastname originated in the Belgian city of Leuven. The name Witteman means White Man in Dutch. And this had to do with the profession of my ancestors. They were masons & plasterers. So they were covered in white most of the time, while working on buildings like the town hall of Leuven. The earliest ancestor we could find on the family tree, was born in the 14th century. So there’s actually quite a big chance, that my ancestors actually worked on the construction of that town hall.
8:00 Although only very few remains to this day, back in the 12th-13th century there used to be around an HUNDRED of towers in the city, if you go to google and type "bologna reconstruction" you can see how it used to look like and its freaking awesome. It was basically the Manhattan of the Middle Ages.
This is a timely video, as the refurbished cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris is officially reopening on 8th December, following the cathedral's gutting by fire in 2019. Btw, my best mate and roomie at junior school had his home in Wales, which I used to visit at least twice a year. It was initially a thrill to be eating breakfast at the table in his kitchen, in the old part of his house. It had been a kitchen since at least 1404. My youngest son's dorm whilst at senior school in Somerset was built in 1350!!
The aqueduct of Segovia is more than 2000 years old and was still bringing fresh water to the city back in the 80s (of course it wasn't the main source of water the city got, not even the 10th on the line but is worth mentioning it was still in use). Coruña (in the North West) has a lighthouse that dates around the same time that is still in use nowadays too. And those are not even the oldest structures in Spain
As a Croat who lives in Croatia I am daily surrounded by Roman architecture and of medieval. We Europeans collectively can say we have A LOT OF ART in our streets. Which i think is very very cool and even I discover new stuff all the time in the place I live and it isnt as big as thos biiiig european cities. The coolest thing is that you can find a roman amphitheatre in Pula which is one of the few best preserved ones. Concerts are held there. Avril lavigne played there this summer. Imagine Dragons were there, I think Robbie Williams as well and others. But the fusion of different historical eras and todays modern architecture is great and interesting. I live for this cultural and architectual heritage we have. 😊
4:20 Limburg has a really nice and lively old town. On the hill over the town thrones the Saint George's Cathedral (since 1827 seat of a bishop which made the former collegiate church a cathedral); the first abbey church was built there in the 900s, extended in the 11th century and remodeled in the 13th century mostly in the current form. This landmark was the motive on the old 500 DM banknotes. 7:52 The leaning tower of Pisa is actually the Campanile or bell tower of the cathedral Santa Maria Assunta, while the leaning towers of Bologna belong to the still surviving family towers from the 12th century as each of the competing patrician clans in this city state. It is presumed that the construction of this forest of towers had to do with the investiture controversy between the Pope and the German-Roman Emperor as well as with the divide between the parties of Guelfi (follower of the Frankish-German House of Welf, Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony) and Ghibellini (follower of the Imperial House of Staufen, Dukes of Swabia, named after the town of Waiblingen near the hereditary seat of Hohenstaufen). Most of the towers were later demolished (some also fell down on their own); the two leaning ones are that of the Asinelli (97m high, built 1109-1116, probably then only about 60m high) and that of the Garisenda (48m high, built around 1110 to the height of 60m); a wooden bridge connecting both was destroyed in 1399 by a fire. 12:30 Dubrovnik was one of the places where they filmed Game of Thrones (mostly scenes set in King's Landing and some set in Qarth). It was first fortified in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the 7th century inhabitants of Epidaurum (20km to the South, destroyed by Slavic warriors) fled here. Later it became known as Ragusa (the Roman part, originally on an island) and Dubrovnik (a Slavic settlement on the coast); in the 12th century the dividing channel between island and main land was filled up. 1205-1358 the republic of Ragusa was a vassal of Venice, 1358 - 1526 they paid tribute to the crown of Croatia and Hungary, until 1718 to the Ottoman Empire. In 1806 the republic was seized by French troops, and in 1808 Marshal de Marmont declared the abolition of the republic and himself Duke of Ragusa in the French Illyrian provinces. In 1815 Ragusa became part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austrian Empire. 16:20 As an example: Maintenance for the Ulm Minster (the church with the still highest church tower in the world) is done by the "Münster-Bauhütte" (minster construction hut) ua-cam.com/video/RoZtQmlweJc/v-deo.html, ("Bauhütte" was in medieval times the name for the construction office for a minster or a cathedral), currently led by the 21th minster master builder, Dr. Heidi Vormann. Since sandstone was used for the intricate details, they are permanently replacing weathered pieces. The work is partly funded by donations, partly with subsidies by the city and the state (the latter mostly for bigger renovation programs).
@@florjanbrudar692 But Barcelona is so much more than that. It is not even only Gaudí. Lots of amazing "modernism" builduings from severel architects. I love the city a lot!
I live not far from Leuven . Leuven is situated at about 27 kilometers east from Brussels . End of september I visited the interior of the town hall before they closed for a few years. They do renovation works during several years. In Leuven you have also a beautiful university library . Leuven has one of the oldest universities in Europe. President Hoover of the U.S.A. searched sponsors to rebuilt the library of Leuven after the first world war because the Germans had put the library on fire . That's why the place at the right side of the library is still called " Hooverplace". Leuven is also known as the beer city. The head office of biggest brewery of the world is located in Leuven. It is A.B. Inbev ('Anheuser Busch Inbev) The brewery of Stella Artois is in Leuven but they brew also beers like Leffe, Hoegaerden, Karmeliet, Jupiler, Kwak, Corona,Victoria ,Belle Vue,, the American beer Anheuser Busch and many other beers inside and outside Belgium; Leuven is also known to have the longest bar of the world. At the "old market" there are about 45 bars(cafe's). The second large university hospital of the world "Gasthuisberg" is also located in Leuven.In 2022 they had about 9963 staff members.
Thanks for sharing the picture of the Chicago building. I really like that it delivers on one idea - the padradox idea of fluidity in a building - very well and still the building seems functional. Love the video. Check out: * Anything by Gaudi (Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell), * the 2000 year old concrete (! Yes concrete can last 2000 years if its opus caementicium) dome of the Patheon in Rome * Versailles Castle and its gardens, the one castle all European Kings tried to copy (but failed, due to lack of funds)
3:20 That's a Morgan Plus 8. They aren't old necessarily. They just look that way. You can buy them fresh from the factory. This one for instance has a factory-fitted third brake light.
@@IWrocker With the stone being vulnerable to acid rain and sooth and other industrial waste in the air, it has to be constantly repaired and replaced. At least one corner of Cologne Cathedral is constantly in scaffolding, because of the ongoing stone work. And if this corner is repaired, the scaffolding moves to the next, so you have an eternal construction site.
15:40 I live near Leuven and often pass there, it is a beautiful building with incredible details, but sometimes you don't even notice it when you pass there every day.
People worldwide build with materials that are readily available and in NA that is wood in a lot of places. But they definitely could work on their building quality in NA.
@@icoborgWhich was owed to building fleets. Denmark has recently re-grown the oaks they had planted for more ships... However, Europe actually has trees. Sheep are often employed to keep a tree free landscape like the Yorkshire Dales or Lüneburger Heide.
Paris is a relatively young city compared to other cities that features lots of middle age house of other official building way older. There are very few remain from the middle ages in Paris. In my town here in the Loire valley, a whole district in the city center dates back to the end of middle ages and renaissance periods. We have hundreds of houses like those two Parisian houses. Most of Paris center is like 1800´s century, which is very new for us. Some monument, like Notre Dame and other churches is 800 years old or more, but most of it is 19th century. That said the oldest building of Paris are the roman baths, about 1700 years old. In Lyon, the whole historic old town dates back of the renaissance, which also many roman ruins. In the south, there are hundreds of villages and cities that are fully from the middle ages, or older. Cities like Nimes or Arles are still full of almost intact roman buildings (arenas, theaters, temples, arches, etc.) dating back from 2000 years ago or more.
If you're interested in architecture take a look at the Vltava Philharmonic Hall that is about to be built in Prague, CZ. It looks absolutely stunning and it is very functional at the same time!
It is said that Leuven build their magnificent townhall when it was still in the running to become the capital city of (South-)Brabant, however it was Brussels that got that title in the end. As for Dubrovnik, some parts of it might be recognized by viewer who watched Game of Thrones, since shots of King's Landing were actually from Dubrovnik.
The white car you couldn’t identify in Kensington is a Morgan a British built car manufacturer. Morgan cars are unusual in that wood has been used in their construction for a century, and is still used in the 21st century for framing the body shell.
6:39 The US had many buildings like this in major cities, like NYC and Boston, built during the "Gilded Age". If they do not exist any longer (and some do remain), it's because many were bulldozed to build bigger apartment/office buildings.
We have Church in Slovakia that was build in 9th-10th century (800-900). There used to be a city around but it completly disapeared and now it is only fields. Leuven is also nice, many buildings like that in Belgium.
i do not know about the maintenace of the leuven town hall .. but basically every gothic cathedral has a crew of stonemasons that do continuous rovving maintenance - one circuit around the entire cathedral every 15 years or so .. 8) - so basically you pay 10 or so well-paid stone masons year in year out - plus material .. plus the costs for occasional larger things like repairs to the roof and such
One place that I found interesting was when I was in Bilbao working, and it was the Azkuna Zentroa building. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century for wine storage, but suffered a fire later, and never really had much done with it, but it had a very elaborately contructed exterior for simple wine storage. In the late 20th century, the interior was completely gutted out, and it was turned into a cultural centre, with a gym, swimming pool, library, shops, exposition hall, cinema, underground parking, restaurants and cafes, the whole lot, all with a very artistic modern feel, but keeping the original design on the exterior. I thought it was a great way to keep the architecture alive, but also give the building a modern use.
I live in a small Town in Germany. Our small Castle Ruin here is first Time written in ancient Documents in Year 1077 Also a few Houses arround it have Years written on it from 1300-1500
You should have a look at Portuguese architecture, not only Portugal was one of the only countries who wasn't bombed during WWII, but Lisbon was also the First town built to resist Earthquakes ! It Inspired Japanese, as there was a Japanese representation , in Lisbon, at that time! +Portugal has it's own unique styles of architecture!
As a Portuguese citizen, I agree. Our architecture can and is very unique. From the stone houses of Tras-os -Montes to the Monastery of Jeronimos there are very different styles. Also, when any old buildings are at risk of collapsing, either have to rebuild and keep the original facade or build a new building and copy the original front, using the same materials and techniques. Very cool way to preserve our own heritage.
If you'd want a taste of how some of these buildings (like the town hall in Belgium) look like from inside, I suggest 2 videos from channel "So Chateaux (in English)", the videos are "Tour of an Architectural Masterpiece: Peles Castle in Romania" and "In the SAME FAMILY for OVER 700 YEARS ! Tour of the CASTLE with the OWNER", these will most likely blow your mind (in a good way) 🙂 Great video as always, cheers from Europe!
My last name originates from south-western France. There is a chateau there called Chateau de Serrant. We did a ancestry check and found that out we are possibly linked to the original family of the chateau.
I live in stockholm, well a bit outside stockholm. The old town (gamla stan) is super old, almost medieval with many very narrow alleys (some only 3ft wide) and they're located on a small island in the middle of the city (there are many islands). The huge royal castle is on the same island, connected by bridges to the rest of the city. Most of stockholm is a mix of classic/70's socialist/contemporary architecture. I live in the "urbs" in a mega sized "commieblock" right next to a forest that goes on for miles (much better looking than soviet blocks)
Commieblock, hahah! I know exactly what that is, it's so funny. We have similar boring mass produced buildings in Norway too, but there is a difference in style. In my region and opinion, at least. Good for you that there's nature right outside, I envy all you people.
The white sportscar in the Kensington photo is a Morgan - the body panels are sheet aluminium over an ash frame built onto a steel chassis. They were famous for making three wheeler versions with the single wheel at the back.
Look at the Duomo of Milan in Italy, and look for the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo (since 16 ottobre 1387) , which is the only one that has been maintaining the Duomo for years and years. However, it is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe
Actually i was born in Leuven. As you can see, every nice has a statue. But each of the statue's pedestals in turn depicts a scene. If you want detailed pictures, hit me up.
Since it is the town hall in Leuven where I live. I got married in this building. It is a fantastic building but the whole area around it is nice. You should also look up the library of Leuven which was reconstructed with American money after the world war it also looks fantastic. And Leuven is the birthplace of Stella Artois so we have the beer to go with all of this which we drink on the old square of which we say it is the longest bar in belgium as there are cafés all around the old square. And it is about 100 meters from the town hall.
Leuven is awsome. Beautifull and buzzing. Towns with old universities or breweries from the middle ages that are still going strong are always great places to visit. Leuven has both 😊.
High there Ian, most of the intricate architecture you've been looking at, was built under the supervision of the guild of masons using cheap but abundant labor,paid for by royal patronage, the typical wooden framed houses were usually built by the carpenters guild, buildings made of stone were, again, usually built by the stone masons guild, castles were built under the supervision of the knightly orders, the templars, the hospitaliars and so on,due to the climate and the lack of termites, many wooden framed buildings, survived, the ability to flex through the use of seasoned wood has given longevity, also as the white parts of these timber framed houses is not plaster, it's called wattle and daub,a mixture of straw and river clay and lime, also don't forget that many buildings were built to impress outsiders of that particular city's importance, the stronger a castle looked, the less likely anyone would contiplate attacking the place, the guilds for at least five hundred years were the predominant power brokers and decision makers within the european continent, this is a generalisation, but you get the drift, also such grandness in building styles were built to commemorate important events and victories, great content dude, once again kicked out of the park,cudos to u, Ian,chau for now
@@IWrocker high there Ian, whilst I thoughrully enjoy your channel and also enjoy complimenting you on the content, I find u tube to be good educational tool,in my opinion ignorance begets ignorance therefore I feel it's my duty to at least elevate my fellow mans level of knowledge helping to separate him or her from incurably stupid yobs who seem to downgrade good education as elitism, give my kind regards to your lovely spouse and the little ones, big hugs,chau chau, for now
16:20 our Basler Münster here in Basel has a yearly budget of around 1.4 Million Swiss Francs (2017) of the city's total investment budget of around 320 Million.
As a european I kind of find the looks of shock and stunned silence kind of funny. But it also does remind me that what we have almost allover is really kind of special, it sometimes get forgotten when living in it every day and thats really a shame. One thing I have found when visiting friends in different cities of europe, looking up really is a good idea. There are so many buildings that have details up at the roof that one never notice if just walking along looking at the shops, quite a few of my friends have said "wow I never noticed that and I lived her for years" all because I cant help but look up and point out things.
Something I remember from my French teacher in high school is to always look at the first floor and up (i.e. second floor and up for Americans). Even in shopping streets with bland multi-national storefronts, a lot of nice architecture is often going in above that commercial-looking ground floor in European cities. I never learned much French I'm afraid, but practical advice like that makes up for it.
7:50 I’m from Bologna and can tell you more about the towers and the city in general. The taller one is called Torre degli Asinelli and the other one Torre Garisenda from the families who commissioned them. At that time the city was ruled by the most rich family and to dispute they builded towers and this two families decided that who builded the tallest tower would rule the city. The winner was the Asinelli family while the Garisenda lost because their tower start to lean during the construction ad they had to stop. Now there are only few towers, but in the past Bologna looked like New York because full of towers. Other interesting facts about the city: •The big building behind the towers is a church called Basilica di San Petronio. You can clearly see that is made of bricks, but if you look the facade is half marble and the rest bricks. This because during the construction were an economic crisis and they had to continue with bricks. •Under some streets there are canals and they can be visited and some of them are still visible. In the past Bologna was known like the second Venezia and was the biggest silk producer and how they fabricated it was so secret that there would be spies sent to find the secret. But unfortunately with the industrial revolution and a successful English spy Bologna lost its prestige. •Bologna has the largest number of kilometers of porticoes in the world with a total of 62km (~32,5 miles).
I was born and raised in Leuven and, like many locals, now work there in one of the city's many historic buildings. A 25-minute train ride takes you from Brussels Central station to Leuven station, where you are immediately immersed in the atmosphere of history and beautiful architecture. A short walk of 1 km (or bus) brings you from the station on the outskirts to the centre of this compact and cosy city: the Grote Markt with the beautiful town hall, the stately Sint Pieters church and many other historic buildings. Around the corner, you can sample one of the many Belgian beers on the Old Market, also known as the longest bar in Europe, because of all the pubs lining the square. Also called the capital of beer, Leuven is the hometown of brewery Stella Artois and also of the oldest university in the Low Lands. There is much more: Beguinage (14th century and still used by the university, even inhabited!), Park Abbey, the university library, the remains of the old city walls, many churches, old and new art, and so on. If you want to discover the wonderful atmosphere of an old, lively Flemish city outside the atmosphere of big cities like Antwerp and Ghent, come to Leuven and enjoy!
7:51 Torre degli Asinelli is considered the highest leaning tower of the Middle Ages in the world. It measures an impressive 97 m and has 498 steps. It is estimated that it was built between 1109 and 1119. The smaller Torre Garisenda was initially 60 m high. Over the centuries, however, it has sunk considerably. For fear that it might topple over at some point, part of the tower was removed in the 14th century. Since then, it has only measured just under 47 m. I live in the city of Basel in the north of Switzerland. There are many old houses in this city. The oldest, which is still used as a small shop, is the Wildeck house on the lower Spalenberg, built in 1269. There are many small alleys, on the houses you can see the house number and the year in which it was finished. Most of them have dates that were built after 1356. In 1356 there was a very strong earthquake that destroyed many houses and caused fires that burned for weeks.
The plaza in Antwerp with the trader houses is one of my favourites. It's so beautiful at night. My city in the Netherlands (Deventer) has a lot of really cool old houses too. The oldest is from 1130. And I was often found in the old Langhuis (1400) in Zwolle for art projects with school (I spend maybe 2 whole years there over my entire study.) I knew the house was old, but I didn't realize it was THAT old until I covered in one of my art projects - I went to the local library to find documents about the area and I wanted to learn about the old hospital from the 1600's my college was in. Because even though it's of old age and it's as crooked as it can be, it's still a genuinely solid structure. Also the hospital building still has it's original lift, with original buttons. It' so damn cool. Oh and the bookstore in Bucharest reminded me of the many bookstores in the Netherlands, some of them in old churches. Like The Boekhandel Dominicanen. And restaurants in churches is also really common here now.
I live in the old center of Amsterdam, our church is built in 1306. If I walk 2 minutes from my house to my office what is situated behind the. old church. Every day I see or find new details of the church. Great channel you have. Greetings from Amsterdam.
You should check out "wintergatan marble machine" and after that heckung out him visiting hollandaise clocktower if you like building things and architecture you'll love those 2 videos
I feel the same way when I look at some of these pictures, how in the world has mankind been able to create something so spectacular and beautiful, espeically sometimes hundreds of years ago! Absolutely mindblowing. The only building I could compare it to in my immediate vicinity is Schloss Eggenberg (Eggenberg Palace) here in Graz, it's a big baroque complex with some beautiful architecture inside and out and a wonderful big garden that is open to the public with animals, playgrounds for kids, a café, etc. .
500 years is not very old for any old word country (not just Europe but also Asia and Africa) The oldest building in my town is a megalithic structure built by my far away ancestors 5000 years ago.
When a new parking garage was build, they found an encampment of Neanderthal people. Fireplaces, bones, scrapers. About 80.000 years old picknick spot.
I was in Vannes in Brittany (Bretagne) back in 2006 and there's loads of half timbered buildings still in full use as shops or restaurants in the heart of the town. Some are supported with an internal steel frame to add structural rigidity. It's nice that many of these Mediaeval buildings still survive as many were replaced with stone or brick or got bombed and replaced with fugly tat in the '50s. Over in W.Sussex there's a small village between Chichester and Petersfield called South Harting (or S.Harting!) where a half timbered house on the narrowest part of the main road was struck by a van with enough force to shift the whole building on its foundation stones. The main street (which is the main road between Chi and Petersfield) is closed for the foreseeable.
When did houses have glass windows in the UK? Glass technology continued to advance in the 17th Century and by the 1680s sash windows were common in middle-class and upper-class homes. When the Industrial Revolution took hold in the mid-18th Century, glass manufacturing became cheaper which meant that glass windows became more widely used.31 Jul 2015
Our city's landmark, the highest church tower in the Netherlands, the Dom tower in Utrecht, was just in scaffolding for almost 5 years. The restoration costs were 40 million euros.
Some information about the two medieval towers in the city of Bologna (Italy). The taller one is called “Asinelli”. Erected, according to tradition, between 1109 and 1119 by the nobleman Gherardo Asinelli, the tower is 97.20 meters high, hangs 2.23 meters to the west and has a staircase inside consisting of 498 wooden steps that tourists can still use to climb to the top and have an impressive 360-degree view of Bologna's historic center. The lowest is called the “Garisenda.” Built in masonry around 1109 by a prosperous family named Garisendi, it originally had a height of about sixty meters, later reduced to forty-eight following structural failures in the foundation soils. This tower is not accessible to the public and is currently undergoing renovation and consolidation of the base and foundations.
When you check the Leuven Building closely, it is full of statues of different size from big to small ones with very clear details on the carvings. There is a small statue of a man about 1 foot tall wearing the medieval clothes. If you go under that statue, you can see that he is not wearing any underwear and you will see the private parts in very clear details. That is how intricate that buliding is. BTW I am from Bruxelles Belgium.
Cologne Cathedral in Germany has an annual building maintenance budget of 6.6 million €. Which is only half the story, as they have to have people trained with historical methods to replace things.
At least the construction "ended"* in 1880, so there's newer documentation... but it began in 1248 (with construction halting 1528-1823), so the old stuff... not so much luck.
* it's one of those places where being done at one end means you can begin at the other end again. Local legend is the world ends if the cathedral is ever really finished.
Wow that's a huge amount of money, although its a truly spectacular Cathedral!
We have a similar system where I am with `Historic Environment Scotland`.
They train all their own apprentices in traditional methods of construction, solely to work on historic buildings and monuments.
To elaborate, they have the "Dombauhütte", which is kind of their own construction company which is exclusively busy with the maintenance of the cathedral. You can book a guided tour through and over the roofs of the cathedral where one of the stone masons or architects will show you around and explain about the history and the architecture. Depending on the specialty of your guide you get a different perspective. It's a spectacular tour which partially leads you through the spires on the outside. Not recommended if you have trouble with vertigo.
Used to visit Cologne Cathedral annually when living in West Germany in the 80s. What a beautiful building..
This is why, whenever we vacation abroad, we allow a significant part of each day unplanned, just to be able to stroll and gaze at the city. One of my favourites is to stroll around near the end of the afternoon or early evening during the magic hour when the lights are coming up and people are starting to relax from the working day. Just beautiful.
Yeah. I do the same. Italy is especially great for doing that. In Rome I had a feeling I was in the museum all the time.
Here in Sweden they have a law of "protection of cultural heritage buildings" They are not allowed to be defaced or changed. If they are to be renovated they have to be fixed keeping the heritage with "more or less" ORIGINAL material and style. If it is so bad that it has to for safety reasons be taken down it has to be rebuilt the same preserving as much of the old material as possible.
In the Netherlands it is the same and you get financial support from the government for maintenance. It's not enough though, so it's not for everyone.
Its good for the house but not for buyer because he cant do anything to his own building. Its not for everyone yes..
We have a similar system in the UK with Listed Buildings
I think it's the same in most countries.
Yep pretty standard rules for monumental buildings all over the EU
8:00 fun fact about thoses tower of Bologna; It is believed that the construction of those towers was merely a "flexxing" competition between two powerful families. There were a lot more towers, but I believe they all collapsed at some point, these two being the only remaining, and the in danger of collapsing aswell.
same as at San Gimignano, only 16 from the 72 are standing and it was a full "hold my beer" flex between powerful families XDDDD
Hahahah! I believe it... And I can even see it happening. Sitting in 1500's era in some cafeteria and getting to an argument with the "other rich guy" from same city. Well I'll build a huge tower. Really? I'll do even bigger tower. ❤😂
I think in various cities the local medieval governments decided to put some limits to the height of towers, to put a stop to the dangerous showcase/competition of economic/political wealth the towers were.
Same with the skyscrapers in NYC! Mine is bigger! Oh yeah? Watch this!
But when you get to a certain height, it costs more per square feet to get higher. Just big dick competition.
There are still 24 towers in Bologna standing. The two most famous ones are just the tallest one and the 4th tallest among those 24 surviving ones. They were built by many families from two political factions.
In Utrecht they just finished a 5 year restauration project of the Dom Tower, build between 1321 and 1382. It's way smaller (by volume) and less intricate than the Leuven City Hall. Its restauration cost €37.4 million, and amazingly that was €1.5 million under budget. During the restauration before this one they put a real size image of the Apollo rocket on the scaffolding to promote the 1986 space expo that was in Utrecht.
The houses on one side of the Street in my English village, were built in the 1500's.
All the old stuff is on the other side 😁
And soon to be an islam village my god what is happening in the UK ?? Dear lord
@@dutchtileworks1332 Wonderfully on topic too... 🙄
@@dutchtileworks1332 Hello Cleetus!
@@dutchtileworks1332 do you mean Islamic village?
The white car at 3:15 is a Morgan +4, a company famous for their roadsters and their unique partial wood frame/chassis construction. This construction method has a lot of historical significance since the British fighter plane "Spitfire" (considered most famous/integral plane to defend Britain in WW2) was built on a wooden frame with a carburetted supercharged 27L (1.650 cubic inches) V12, the Rolls-Royce Merlin making 1000hp in 1936 on 87octane aviation fuel, 1300hp from 1940 onward and closer to 1800hp at the end of the war with 150/100octane on the same engine.
Phew, totally managed to keep my plane nerding out to a minimum on this one amirite
There was an old Pub called the Crooked House in Staffordshire , it was demolished by its new owners without permission
Because of this they have been taken to court and could go to prison if they do not rebuild it in exactly the same conditions it was in before the demolition, they must include as much as possible of the materials of the original building
YES!!
Here in the UK my brother-in-law is a Master Thatcher. He has re-thatched countless old buildings over the years, mainly cottages, but some have been from the 1500s.
We had Master Thatcher's come up from England to thatch the roof of one of our pubs in Ayr. It was a like for like replacement on a b listed building.
Leuven town hall is amazing. And hardly any tourists around.... love it!
Ok we going.
Belgium is so underrated, Leuven, Ghent, Dinant... And the obvious but extremely touristy Bruges. Brussels is fine too, but can be skipped because the other cities in the country do it better.
Leuven Town Hall was made this way because Brussels went BIG, they couldn't stay behind.
Always competition between Brussels, Leuven and Antwerp for bigger, more sculpture, richer, more gold.
15:15, they had rudimentary scaffolding, cranes and lifting equipment even back then, was it safe probably not but it got the job done.
Nearly all 'old' US city buildings were demolished to make way for the new Golden Calf: the automobile.
I'm not from across the pond but another killer or older buildings is probably shopping mall establishments I would wager. Granted they are often put up on the outskirts of population centers so maybe they largely end up popping up elsewhere but.. yeah. Commercial developments ... well there's a Swedish word - Förfula - as far as I can determine there isn't a direct translation but if I had to make up a word it would be uglify. As in to make things uglier.
Even if you like modern architecture malls are, by and large in my experience, just shallow, obnoxious and soulless hunks of glass and steel that are built to purpose - Mass consumption - rather than with aesthetic concerns for the general area in mind.
Many cities have minimum parking requirements for buisinesses, so it is impossible to open one without tearing down neighboring (old) buildings for parking facilities.
It's a shame, since it really 'uglifies' and deminishes the reasons to go downtown...
@@la-go-xy I live not far from the Roman city of Bath in the UK. The solution there is the out of town park-and-ride bus service, which works brilliantly.
@@mehitabel6564 and you have a public transport network, probably, so you can hop on anywhere in town to get everywhere without problems
@4:00 Completely agree that the mixture of old and new side-by-side is often amusing. For instance, the church of St Dunstan-in-the-East in London was built in c.1100 and is now surrounded by skyscrapers. There are still fragments of the Roman wall that once circled the city too. So much of Europe is like that.
One big problem with medieval cities was that the buildings were very close to each other and mostly built from wood, so one can imagine what happened when a house fire started. I grew up in Finland's second oldest city, which suffered from several big fires over the centuries and the last big one was in 1760. At that time 2/3 of the town burnt down, so even though the town was founded in the 14th century, very few buildings are older than 250 years and the Old Town is only a very small part of the city today.
The painter Jheronimus Bosch painted hell so very well because he saw 1/3 of his town go up in flames around 1490. Though roofs should already have tiles and no flame-able covers.
It is irritating how some people generalize their little niche as the world norm. Do you think the majority of medieval cities were built like in Finland? Please visit the cities that mattered on those times, they are way south.
Yep, I been living my whole life in the oldest city in Finland which suffered couple of huge fires too, and basically burned down whole city, there is one museum area with the old medieval buildings still that survived the fires, Turku Cathedral is also one of the oldest buildings in Finland (there is few other ones that are older), although it started as wooden building, burned and rebuilt etc few times, also Turku Castle too. They are both like 700-800 years old
Many houses were wood frame in Germany, even those of wealthy merchants... London is known to have burnt down...
However, churches were often of stone, sometimes brick. Somewhat later, rich people in middle Europe often built from stone to impress.
You might find more old wood frame buildings in smaller towns where war and fires had not hit that much.
the car is a morgan .. the old ones looked pretty much like that one but had wooden frames
The new ones still look like this, and they still use ashwood frames.
@@East-42 oh i did not now this that they still use wooden frames
“In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.”
In Spain the end of the Middle Age is the Discovery of América, in 1492, the 12 of Octover.
In the rest of countries is the fall of Constantinople.
Sorry for my bad english. I am spaniard.
Now explain concept of century to American viewers because I know for a fact most Americans don't know what century is or rather how long it is.
Yeah, "medieval" is kind of useless as s limiter. Especialyl if you try to apply it outside Europe, but at least that can't happen here.
In short, those houses are at least 500-600 years old.
And then think about all the many buildings built during Roman empire and they still stand. Romans knew how to build sturdy constructions thats for sure. 🤣
There are old buildings all over Europe, for example the Kammerzell house in my town which dates from 1420.
there are literally thousands of very old and decorated buildings in hundreds of cities in europe. you couldn't see them irl in a lifetime even if you saw one every minute for 50 years
In Croatia where I live in the Split area has a mix of Roman Empire and medieval architecture. The city centre is basically a palace of a Roman Emperor. Although not as much in its original state but still a lot of it still can be seen. Its a bit over 1700 years old. It still blows my mind although i am used to see it almost on daily basis 😂
In Denmark we have lots of old buildings too. When some of the buildings had to be removed they rebuild them in: Den gamle by, Arhus/ The old town, Arhus. There are lots of videos from the old town here on YT.
Libraries have a significant place in Finnish culture and architecture: "AALTO - Official Trailer", "Alvar Aalto. The most famous nordic architect. Vyborg library project" and "The Most Popular Stool of All Time | Behind The HYPE: Stool 60". Discussing the architectural sights in Helsinki: "15 Must-See Architecture in the City Centre of Helsinki, Finland". On more traditional building style: "Oldest Log Cabin in America for Sale in New Jersey", "Traditional Finnish Log House Building Process" and "Traditional finnish log house 1988 and the same house 2017".
10:35 If you have ever wondered where the shooting location for the "Grand Budapest Hotel" interior scenes was: It's a store in Görlitz, Germany.
Dubrovnik is the place where the scenes in Kings landing (Game of Thrones) were filmed.
Yes, and some American tourist was presistant to find out phone number of constructor who is dead for more than half century 😂
@@mujopasuljic6471 for real?
Mostly CGI...
In April 2024 a Building called Børsen, burned down, it was build in the years 1619-1623 & was our goods/stock exchange up until 1974. & a place where lots of arts was stored since. This was considered the finest example of Nederland renaissance in Denmark & a protected building, as well as part of our cultural heritage The project of rebuilding it is estimated to take 2 years & cost more than 150M USD.
When you get a chance to visit Europe, Belgium has some great architecture (indeed, in Brussels many buildings have a plaque with information about the architect) - you’ll particularly like Antwerp, Ghent and Brugge. And hey, if you get to Stockholm, I’d be happy to show you around!
That mural on the blank facade is located in Poznań (Poland) between Rondo (Roundabout) Śródka and Ostrów Tumski (its an isle district).
The interesting thing here is that those blank facades you may see sometimes in Poland are due to WW2 destruction. Some buildings had to be teared down and the blank wall you see is the separating wall between 2 buildings. This part of the old buildings does not fall under the law of monument conservation. This makes it so popular for murals since it doesnt need to comply with any conservation laws. Something that has become very popular in Poland is that companies will sponsor beautiful murals in exchange of incorporated / small logos in the murals. Its a win for everyone:
The city gets prettier since it loses those ugly blank spaces, so the general public benefits.
The city council doesnt need to pay or pretty much do anything for the city to become prettier.
The owners of the buildings dont need to pay for it and the value of the building goes up.
Artists get free space, tools and resources to make publicly available art and more often than not they get paid for it too.
Companies get for cheap advertising space and good PR like in the example you showed - Terravita is a chocolate manufacturer.
It saves money and resources, because the alternative is cloning the front facade onto this blank wall for an absurd amount of money while there is always the possibility that at some point the building that stood their might be rebuild sooner or later what would be waste of money and resources.
This is society at its peak. Everyone gets along. Everyone wins.
PS: There are hundreds if not thousands legal murals like this in Poland.
PS2: My friend Karol actually took part in the creation of this particular mural in Poznań.
The oldest preserved stone house in NW Europe is in Scotland, and was built in 3700 bc, lol.
Yes, on the Orkney Islands. I visited them once, they are amazing!
@@Julie-qc8cd Yes, Skara Brae on mainland Orkney is the the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe, dating from 3200bc.
The knap of Howar, on the island of Papa Westray is the oldest with radio carbon dating it at 3700bc. 👍
Yes, these wooden and cob houses exist everywhere in France, I myself live in this type of house, it was built according to municipal archives at the end of the Hundred Years War (between France and England) around the 1450s but fortunately with the comfort of the 21st century.😊😊
My lastname originated in the Belgian city of Leuven. The name Witteman means White Man in Dutch. And this had to do with the profession of my ancestors. They were masons & plasterers. So they were covered in white most of the time, while working on buildings like the town hall of Leuven. The earliest ancestor we could find on the family tree, was born in the 14th century. So there’s actually quite a big chance, that my ancestors actually worked on the construction of that town hall.
Cool! 😃
8:00 Although only very few remains to this day, back in the 12th-13th century there used to be around an HUNDRED of towers in the city, if you go to google and type "bologna reconstruction" you can see how it used to look like and its freaking awesome. It was basically the Manhattan of the Middle Ages.
This is a timely video, as the refurbished cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris is officially reopening on 8th December, following the cathedral's gutting by fire in 2019. Btw, my best mate and roomie at junior school had his home in Wales, which I used to visit at least twice a year. It was initially a thrill to be eating breakfast at the table in his kitchen, in the old part of his house. It had been a kitchen since at least 1404. My youngest son's dorm whilst at senior school in Somerset was built in 1350!!
The aqueduct of Segovia is more than 2000 years old and was still bringing fresh water to the city back in the 80s (of course it wasn't the main source of water the city got, not even the 10th on the line but is worth mentioning it was still in use). Coruña (in the North West) has a lighthouse that dates around the same time that is still in use nowadays too. And those are not even the oldest structures in Spain
La torre de Hércules. My brother was just there this weekend
As a Croat who lives in Croatia I am daily surrounded by Roman architecture and of medieval.
We Europeans collectively can say we have A LOT OF ART in our streets.
Which i think is very very cool and even I discover new stuff all the time in the place I live and it isnt as big as thos biiiig european cities.
The coolest thing is that you can find a roman amphitheatre in Pula which is one of the few best preserved ones. Concerts are held there. Avril lavigne played there this summer. Imagine Dragons were there, I think Robbie Williams as well and others.
But the fusion of different historical eras and todays modern architecture is great and interesting.
I live for this cultural and architectual heritage we have. 😊
When you travel to Europe, try to visit some of the open-air village museums. Many countries have at least a few of them.
4:20 Limburg has a really nice and lively old town. On the hill over the town thrones the Saint George's Cathedral (since 1827 seat of a bishop which made the former collegiate church a cathedral); the first abbey church was built there in the 900s, extended in the 11th century and remodeled in the 13th century mostly in the current form. This landmark was the motive on the old 500 DM banknotes.
7:52 The leaning tower of Pisa is actually the Campanile or bell tower of the cathedral Santa Maria Assunta, while the leaning towers of Bologna belong to the still surviving family towers from the 12th century as each of the competing patrician clans in this city state. It is presumed that the construction of this forest of towers had to do with the investiture controversy between the Pope and the German-Roman Emperor as well as with the divide between the parties of Guelfi (follower of the Frankish-German House of Welf, Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony) and Ghibellini (follower of the Imperial House of Staufen, Dukes of Swabia, named after the town of Waiblingen near the hereditary seat of Hohenstaufen). Most of the towers were later demolished (some also fell down on their own); the two leaning ones are that of the Asinelli (97m high, built 1109-1116, probably then only about 60m high) and that of the Garisenda (48m high, built around 1110 to the height of 60m); a wooden bridge connecting both was destroyed in 1399 by a fire.
12:30 Dubrovnik was one of the places where they filmed Game of Thrones (mostly scenes set in King's Landing and some set in Qarth). It was first fortified in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the 7th century inhabitants of Epidaurum (20km to the South, destroyed by Slavic warriors) fled here. Later it became known as Ragusa (the Roman part, originally on an island) and Dubrovnik (a Slavic settlement on the coast); in the 12th century the dividing channel between island and main land was filled up. 1205-1358 the republic of Ragusa was a vassal of Venice, 1358 - 1526 they paid tribute to the crown of Croatia and Hungary, until 1718 to the Ottoman Empire. In 1806 the republic was seized by French troops, and in 1808 Marshal de Marmont declared the abolition of the republic and himself Duke of Ragusa in the French Illyrian provinces. In 1815 Ragusa became part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austrian Empire.
16:20 As an example: Maintenance for the Ulm Minster (the church with the still highest church tower in the world) is done by the "Münster-Bauhütte" (minster construction hut) ua-cam.com/video/RoZtQmlweJc/v-deo.html, ("Bauhütte" was in medieval times the name for the construction office for a minster or a cathedral), currently led by the 21th minster master builder, Dr. Heidi Vormann. Since sandstone was used for the intricate details, they are permanently replacing weathered pieces. The work is partly funded by donations, partly with subsidies by the city and the state (the latter mostly for bigger renovation programs).
3:30 looks like a Morgan Roadster, I could be wrong
I recommend you see some of Gaudi's houses in Barcelona, Casa Batlló, La Pedrera and the Sagrada Familia, although it is still under construction.
Yes. Barcelona is an amazing city
He did see Sagrada Familia
@@florjanbrudar692 But Barcelona is so much more than that. It is not even only Gaudí. Lots of amazing "modernism" builduings from severel architects. I love the city a lot!
I got really tired after Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi.
I live not far from Leuven . Leuven is situated at about 27 kilometers east from Brussels . End of september I visited the interior of the town hall before they closed for a few years. They do renovation works during several years. In Leuven you have also a beautiful university library . Leuven has one of the oldest universities in Europe. President Hoover of the U.S.A. searched sponsors to rebuilt the library of Leuven after the first world war because the Germans had put the library on fire . That's why the place at the right side of the library is still called " Hooverplace". Leuven is also known as the beer city. The head office of biggest brewery of the world is located in Leuven. It is A.B. Inbev ('Anheuser Busch Inbev) The brewery of Stella Artois is in Leuven but they brew also beers like Leffe, Hoegaerden, Karmeliet, Jupiler, Kwak, Corona,Victoria ,Belle Vue,, the American beer Anheuser Busch and many other beers inside and outside Belgium; Leuven is also known to have the longest bar of the world. At the "old market" there are about 45 bars(cafe's). The second large university hospital of the world "Gasthuisberg" is also located in Leuven.In 2022 they had about 9963 staff members.
Thanks for sharing the picture of the Chicago building. I really like that it delivers on one idea - the padradox idea of fluidity in a building - very well and still the building seems functional.
Love the video. Check out:
* Anything by Gaudi (Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell),
* the 2000 year old concrete (! Yes concrete can last 2000 years if its opus caementicium) dome of the Patheon in Rome
* Versailles Castle and its gardens, the one castle all European Kings tried to copy (but failed, due to lack of funds)
3:20 That's a Morgan Plus 8. They aren't old necessarily. They just look that way. You can buy them fresh from the factory. This one for instance has a factory-fitted third brake light.
16:10 The upkeep for the Cologne Cathedral is about 12 million Euros per year.
Wow! That’s more than I would’ve guessed
@@IWrocker With the stone being vulnerable to acid rain and sooth and other industrial waste in the air, it has to be constantly repaired and replaced. At least one corner of Cologne Cathedral is constantly in scaffolding, because of the ongoing stone work. And if this corner is repaired, the scaffolding moves to the next, so you have an eternal construction site.
55% of that being "Bauunterhalt", which I translated as contsruction maintenance.
Oldest town in Sweden, Sigtuna was founded 980AD, Stockholm 1252AD.
15:40 I live near Leuven and often pass there, it is a beautiful building with incredible details, but sometimes you don't even notice it when you pass there every day.
For people still building with 2 by 4s and some plywood, everything in Europe is WOW !
People worldwide build with materials that are readily available and in NA that is wood in a lot of places. But they definitely could work on their building quality in NA.
@@SilverSmrfr right because in europe from 1000 (a random date) there were no trees
@@icoborgWhich was owed to building fleets. Denmark has recently re-grown the oaks they had planted for more ships...
However, Europe actually has trees. Sheep are often employed to keep a tree free landscape like the Yorkshire Dales or Lüneburger Heide.
Paris is a relatively young city compared to other cities that features lots of middle age house of other official building way older. There are very few remain from the middle ages in Paris. In my town here in the Loire valley, a whole district in the city center dates back to the end of middle ages and renaissance periods. We have hundreds of houses like those two Parisian houses. Most of Paris center is like 1800´s century, which is very new for us. Some monument, like Notre Dame and other churches is 800 years old or more, but most of it is 19th century. That said the oldest building of Paris are the roman baths, about 1700 years old.
In Lyon, the whole historic old town dates back of the renaissance, which also many roman ruins. In the south, there are hundreds of villages and cities that are fully from the middle ages, or older. Cities like Nimes or Arles are still full of almost intact roman buildings (arenas, theaters, temples, arches, etc.) dating back from 2000 years ago or more.
If you're interested in architecture take a look at the Vltava Philharmonic Hall that is about to be built in Prague, CZ. It looks absolutely stunning and it is very functional at the same time!
It is said that Leuven build their magnificent townhall when it was still in the running to become the capital city of (South-)Brabant, however it was Brussels that got that title in the end. As for Dubrovnik, some parts of it might be recognized by viewer who watched Game of Thrones, since shots of King's Landing were actually from Dubrovnik.
The white car you couldn’t identify in Kensington is a Morgan a British built car manufacturer.
Morgan cars are unusual in that wood has been used in their construction for a century, and is still used in the 21st century for framing the body shell.
It sounds good that people build with traditional techniques and materials, but it's not that good if there's an accident.
Check out Barcelona, Sagrada Família
6:39 The US had many buildings like this in major cities, like NYC and Boston, built during the "Gilded Age". If they do not exist any longer (and some do remain), it's because many were bulldozed to build bigger apartment/office buildings.
@IWrocker you could do a video on old American buildings & ruins. Would be interesting to see and might uncover some surprizes?
8:45 the domes are green because they are made of copper and they became covered with patina like the Statue of Liberty
We have Church in Slovakia that was build in 9th-10th century (800-900). There used to be a city around but it completly disapeared and now it is only fields. Leuven is also nice, many buildings like that in Belgium.
i do not know about the maintenace of the leuven town hall .. but basically every gothic cathedral has a crew of stonemasons that do continuous rovving maintenance - one circuit around the entire cathedral every 15 years or so .. 8) - so basically you pay 10 or so well-paid stone masons year in year out - plus material .. plus the costs for occasional larger things like repairs to the roof and such
most impressive about these wonderful old buildings,they are all handmade!! no electric tools or machines.
One place that I found interesting was when I was in Bilbao working, and it was the Azkuna Zentroa building. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century for wine storage, but suffered a fire later, and never really had much done with it, but it had a very elaborately contructed exterior for simple wine storage. In the late 20th century, the interior was completely gutted out, and it was turned into a cultural centre, with a gym, swimming pool, library, shops, exposition hall, cinema, underground parking, restaurants and cafes, the whole lot, all with a very artistic modern feel, but keeping the original design on the exterior. I thought it was a great way to keep the architecture alive, but also give the building a modern use.
I live in a small Town in Germany.
Our small Castle Ruin here is first Time written in ancient Documents in Year 1077
Also a few Houses arround it have Years written on it from 1300-1500
You should have a look at Portuguese architecture, not only Portugal was one of the only countries who wasn't bombed during WWII, but Lisbon was also the First town built to resist Earthquakes ! It Inspired Japanese, as there was a Japanese representation , in Lisbon, at that time!
+Portugal has it's own unique styles of architecture!
As a Portuguese citizen, I agree. Our architecture can and is very unique. From the stone houses of Tras-os -Montes to the Monastery of Jeronimos there are very different styles.
Also, when any old buildings are at risk of collapsing, either have to rebuild and keep the original facade or build a new building and copy the original front, using the same materials and techniques. Very cool way to preserve our own heritage.
If you'd want a taste of how some of these buildings (like the town hall in Belgium) look like from inside, I suggest 2 videos from channel "So Chateaux (in English)", the videos are "Tour of an Architectural Masterpiece: Peles Castle in Romania" and "In the SAME FAMILY for OVER 700 YEARS ! Tour of the CASTLE with the OWNER", these will most likely blow your mind (in a good way) 🙂 Great video as always, cheers from Europe!
11:38 Actually, the Fisherman’s bastion in today’s form isn’t that old. It was being built between 1899 and 1905.
My last name originates from south-western France. There is a chateau there called Chateau de Serrant. We did a ancestry check and found that out we are possibly linked to the original family of the chateau.
Maybe you can look up Gravensteen Ghent, Belgium. It is a castle from 1180 in the middle of the city.
The included tour (headphones) is hilarious, you really need to do that when visiting, really funny.
I love these type of videos man. Feels like I'm hanging out with a friend
I live in stockholm, well a bit outside stockholm. The old town (gamla stan) is super old, almost medieval with many very narrow alleys (some only 3ft wide) and they're located on a small island in the middle of the city (there are many islands). The huge royal castle is on the same island, connected by bridges to the rest of the city. Most of stockholm is a mix of classic/70's socialist/contemporary architecture. I live in the "urbs" in a mega sized "commieblock" right next to a forest that goes on for miles (much better looking than soviet blocks)
Commieblock, hahah! I know exactly what that is, it's so funny. We have similar boring mass produced buildings in Norway too, but there is a difference in style. In my region and opinion, at least. Good for you that there's nature right outside, I envy all you people.
@@basstrammel1322 but you live in norway. you got mountain scenery. we don't
3:10 Morgan Plus 8
And it's not old, it might be brand new but it's just a old design and way of building cars.
Might have to have a look into Morgan ;)
@@tienenaar2295 That car in particular in the video looks like a 70s/80s Morgan Plus 4
The white sportscar in the Kensington photo is a Morgan - the body panels are sheet aluminium over an ash frame built onto a steel chassis. They were famous for making three wheeler versions with the single wheel at the back.
3.00 the car is a Morgan
. look for Antoni Gaudí architecture (spanish) .. and Oscar Niemeyer (brazilian)
Look at the Duomo of Milan in Italy, and look for the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo (since 16 ottobre 1387) , which is the only one that has been maintaining the Duomo for years and years. However, it is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe
Actually i was born in Leuven. As you can see, every nice has a statue. But each of the statue's pedestals in turn depicts a scene. If you want detailed pictures, hit me up.
you NEED to look at the Sainte Chapelle church in France, it will blow your mind
Absolutely - for me, it was one of the highlights of Paris.
On Gotland in Sweden, we have 92 churches that began to be built in the 13th century that are still in use.
Since it is the town hall in Leuven where I live. I got married in this building. It is a fantastic building but the whole area around it is nice. You should also look up the library of Leuven which was reconstructed with American money after the world war it also looks fantastic. And Leuven is the birthplace of Stella Artois so we have the beer to go with all of this which we drink on the old square of which we say it is the longest bar in belgium as there are cafés all around the old square. And it is about 100 meters from the town hall.
I'm glad to see the Fisherman's Bastion too, greetings from Hungary!
Leuven is awsome. Beautifull and buzzing. Towns with old universities or breweries from the middle ages that are still going strong are always great places to visit. Leuven has both 😊.
9:10 it's more like "Ooh-dy", as in literally "an Ode".
High there Ian, most of the intricate architecture you've been looking at, was built under the supervision of the guild of masons using cheap but abundant labor,paid for by royal patronage, the typical wooden framed houses were usually built by the carpenters guild, buildings made of stone were, again, usually built by the stone masons guild, castles were built under the supervision of the knightly orders, the templars, the hospitaliars and so on,due to the climate and the lack of termites, many wooden framed buildings, survived, the ability to flex through the use of seasoned wood has given longevity, also as the white parts of these timber framed houses is not plaster, it's called wattle and daub,a mixture of straw and river clay and lime, also don't forget that many buildings were built to impress outsiders of that particular city's importance, the stronger a castle looked, the less likely anyone would contiplate attacking the place, the guilds for at least five hundred years were the predominant power brokers and decision makers within the european continent, this is a generalisation, but you get the drift, also such grandness in building styles were built to commemorate important events and victories, great content dude, once again kicked out of the park,cudos to u, Ian,chau for now
Thank You for a great explanation 🎉
@@IWrocker high there Ian, whilst I thoughrully enjoy your channel and also enjoy complimenting you on the content, I find u tube to be good educational tool,in my opinion ignorance begets ignorance therefore I feel it's my duty to at least elevate my fellow mans level of knowledge helping to separate him or her from incurably stupid yobs who seem to downgrade good education as elitism, give my kind regards to your lovely spouse and the little ones, big hugs,chau chau, for now
the houses in Barcelona by Antonio Gaudi will also blow your mind
16:20 our Basler Münster here in Basel has a yearly budget of around 1.4 Million Swiss Francs (2017) of the city's total investment budget of around 320 Million.
I'm from Leuven, born and raised. Im a street musician and I've played on the grote markt a number of times. Its my home!
As a european I kind of find the looks of shock and stunned silence kind of funny.
But it also does remind me that what we have almost allover is really kind of special, it sometimes get forgotten when living in it every day and thats really a shame.
One thing I have found when visiting friends in different cities of europe, looking up really is a good idea.
There are so many buildings that have details up at the roof that one never notice if just walking along looking at the shops, quite a few of my friends have said "wow I never noticed that and I lived her for years" all because I cant help but look up and point out things.
Something I remember from my French teacher in high school is to always look at the first floor and up (i.e. second floor and up for Americans). Even in shopping streets with bland multi-national storefronts, a lot of nice architecture is often going in above that commercial-looking ground floor in European cities. I never learned much French I'm afraid, but practical advice like that makes up for it.
Hi Ian,
The car in Kensington (London) is a MORGAN! A wonderful great little British car!
7:50 I’m from Bologna and can tell you more about the towers and the city in general. The taller one is called Torre degli Asinelli and the other one Torre Garisenda from the families who commissioned them. At that time the city was ruled by the most rich family and to dispute they builded towers and this two families decided that who builded the tallest tower would rule the city. The winner was the Asinelli family while the Garisenda lost because their tower start to lean during the construction ad they had to stop. Now there are only few towers, but in the past Bologna looked like New York because full of towers.
Other interesting facts about the city:
•The big building behind the towers is a church called Basilica di San Petronio. You can clearly see that is made of bricks, but if you look the facade is half marble and the rest bricks. This because during the construction were an economic crisis and they had to continue with bricks.
•Under some streets there are canals and they can be visited and some of them are still visible. In the past Bologna was known like the second Venezia and was the biggest silk producer and how they fabricated it was so secret that there would be spies sent to find the secret. But unfortunately with the industrial revolution and a successful English spy Bologna lost its prestige.
•Bologna has the largest number of kilometers of porticoes in the world with a total of 62km (~32,5 miles).
We have 1 building, in a random town in the Netherlands, that is from 1350-ish. I think that is quite common, at least if the town is old enough.
I lived in one of the houses in Limburg ! One Street away from the Picture. It was nice. :)
Nice video !
You should check out every cathedrals they are insane even more than leuven town hall
Check out the cologne cathedral on google, it took 632 years to complete, half a millennia plus 132 years. It's gigantic
"every cathedral" .. .that's enough material for days.
@@krisstopher8259 Well, 295years of that was a construction stop. But yes.
Hi Ian another interesting house and architecture is the smallest house in Conway Wales here in the uk
I was born and raised in Leuven and, like many locals, now work there in one of the city's many historic buildings. A 25-minute train ride takes you from Brussels Central station to Leuven station, where you are immediately immersed in the atmosphere of history and beautiful architecture. A short walk of 1 km (or bus) brings you from the station on the outskirts to the centre of this compact and cosy city: the Grote Markt with the beautiful town hall, the stately Sint Pieters church and many other historic buildings. Around the corner, you can sample one of the many Belgian beers on the Old Market, also known as the longest bar in Europe, because of all the pubs lining the square. Also called the capital of beer, Leuven is the hometown of brewery Stella Artois and also of the oldest university in the Low Lands. There is much more: Beguinage (14th century and still used by the university, even inhabited!), Park Abbey, the university library, the remains of the old city walls, many churches, old and new art, and so on. If you want to discover the wonderful atmosphere of an old, lively Flemish city outside the atmosphere of big cities like Antwerp and Ghent, come to Leuven and enjoy!
Here in Portugal we have a few monasteries like Batalha or Tomar and many more that are awsome old masterpieces aswell
7:51 Torre degli Asinelli is considered the highest leaning tower of the Middle Ages in the world. It measures an impressive 97 m and has 498 steps. It is estimated that it was built between 1109 and 1119. The smaller Torre Garisenda was initially 60 m high. Over the centuries, however, it has sunk considerably. For fear that it might topple over at some point, part of the tower was removed in the 14th century. Since then, it has only measured just under 47 m.
I live in the city of Basel in the north of Switzerland. There are many old houses in this city. The oldest, which is still used as a small shop, is the Wildeck house on the lower Spalenberg, built in 1269.
There are many small alleys, on the houses you can see the house number and the year in which it was finished.
Most of them have dates that were built after 1356. In 1356 there was a very strong earthquake that destroyed many houses and caused fires that burned for weeks.
Most of the shots from the series Game of Thrones' capital city Kings Landing, where shot in Dubrovnik, Croatia. But I think you already knew that 😅.
The plaza in Antwerp with the trader houses is one of my favourites. It's so beautiful at night. My city in the Netherlands (Deventer) has a lot of really cool old houses too. The oldest is from 1130. And I was often found in the old Langhuis (1400) in Zwolle for art projects with school (I spend maybe 2 whole years there over my entire study.) I knew the house was old, but I didn't realize it was THAT old until I covered in one of my art projects - I went to the local library to find documents about the area and I wanted to learn about the old hospital from the 1600's my college was in. Because even though it's of old age and it's as crooked as it can be, it's still a genuinely solid structure. Also the hospital building still has it's original lift, with original buttons. It' so damn cool. Oh and the bookstore in Bucharest reminded me of the many bookstores in the Netherlands, some of them in old churches. Like The Boekhandel Dominicanen. And restaurants in churches is also really common here now.
I live in the old center of Amsterdam, our church is built in 1306.
If I walk 2 minutes from my house to my office what is situated behind the. old church. Every day I see or find new details of the church.
Great channel you have.
Greetings from Amsterdam.
You should check out "wintergatan marble machine" and after that heckung out him visiting hollandaise clocktower if you like building things and architecture you'll love those 2 videos
I feel the same way when I look at some of these pictures, how in the world has mankind been able to create something so spectacular and beautiful, espeically sometimes hundreds of years ago! Absolutely mindblowing.
The only building I could compare it to in my immediate vicinity is Schloss Eggenberg (Eggenberg Palace) here in Graz, it's a big baroque complex with some beautiful architecture inside and out and a wonderful big garden that is open to the public with animals, playgrounds for kids, a café, etc. .
Check out the cologne cathedral on google, it took 632 years to complete, half a millennia plus 132 years. Europe is really old
500 years is not very old for any old word country (not just Europe but also Asia and Africa)
The oldest building in my town is a megalithic structure built by my far away ancestors 5000 years ago.
When a new parking garage was build, they found an encampment of Neanderthal people.
Fireplaces, bones, scrapers. About 80.000 years old picknick spot.
I was in Vannes in Brittany (Bretagne) back in 2006 and there's loads of half timbered buildings still in full use as shops or restaurants in the heart of the town. Some are supported with an internal steel frame to add structural rigidity. It's nice that many of these Mediaeval buildings still survive as many were replaced with stone or brick or got bombed and replaced with fugly tat in the '50s.
Over in W.Sussex there's a small village between Chichester and Petersfield called South Harting (or S.Harting!) where a half timbered house on the narrowest part of the main road was struck by a van with enough force to shift the whole building on its foundation stones. The main street (which is the main road between Chi and Petersfield) is closed for the foreseeable.
10:24 that HUGE earth looking lamp or whatever it was was beautiful.
When did houses have glass windows in the UK?
Glass technology continued to advance in the 17th Century and by the 1680s sash windows were common in middle-class and upper-class homes. When the Industrial Revolution took hold in the mid-18th Century, glass manufacturing became cheaper which meant that glass windows became more widely used.31 Jul 2015
Our city's landmark, the highest church tower in the Netherlands, the Dom tower in Utrecht, was just in scaffolding for almost 5 years. The restoration costs were 40 million euros.
Some information about the two medieval towers in the city of Bologna (Italy).
The taller one is called “Asinelli”. Erected, according to tradition, between 1109 and 1119 by the nobleman Gherardo Asinelli, the tower is 97.20 meters high, hangs 2.23 meters to the west and has a staircase inside consisting of 498 wooden steps that tourists can still use to climb to the top and have an impressive 360-degree view of Bologna's historic center.
The lowest is called the “Garisenda.” Built in masonry around 1109 by a prosperous family named Garisendi, it originally had a height of about sixty meters, later reduced to forty-eight following structural failures in the foundation soils.
This tower is not accessible to the public and is currently undergoing renovation and consolidation of the base and foundations.
When you check the Leuven Building closely, it is full of statues of different size from big to small ones with very clear details on the carvings. There is a small statue of a man about 1 foot tall wearing the medieval clothes. If you go under that statue, you can see that he is not wearing any underwear and you will see the private parts in very clear details. That is how intricate that buliding is. BTW I am from Bruxelles Belgium.
you should check out old edinburgh some stunning buildings
and very old
the whole city is like harry potter