Roman Town as foundations for European cities

Roman Town as foundations for European cities

 

Many major cities in Europe can trace their roots to the times of antiquity. At that time Romans expanded their empire and established new outposts all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Looking at many cities from this area we can still see their history affecting their appearance today. Knowing what was going on in antiquity and how they were founded helps us to understand their development over history and appreciate what still remains of their history. It also helps us to understand why do they look like they do today.          

Wen a Roman town was measured a surveyer called mensor or agrimensor used a staff called groma to sight the main axis. The main roads were planned along them. The main north-south street was called cardus maximus and the west-east street was called decumanus maximus. They usually intersected in the middle. From these main streets lesser streets parallel to them called decumanus and cardumanus were surveyed.  The grid created by roads created square city blocks called insulae witch had a length of around 70-80 meters. In the center of the city was a basilica, forum and the main temple. They were often built as single three block complex called tripartite forum. The temple faced on the three sides by columns faced across the basilica.


The remains of the original town can be still today for example in Paris. The Roman town of Lutetia was founded in the left bank of today’s Paris around 3rd century BC. The town was planned like many other cities around Europe and the Mediterranean.The Zero point where the measuring of the city began was usually the highest point of Cardus maximus which must have been in the corner of the old Roman forum. From there the city blocks were also measured. Between Rue Sant Martin which was Cardus maximus of Lutetia and Rue Saint Denis is 600 roman feet which had been enough for two Roman apartment blocks.

The remains of the old Roman town plan can also bee seen in many other cities. As ruins or in the modern cityscape. Just look into the masterplans of London (Londinium), Cologne (Golognia Agrippina) or Vienna (Vindobona).

Kommentit

  1. Niko Aulis27. toukokuuta 2023 klo 7.46

    Interesting topic! I try to keep this in my head while observing Italy at our architecture excursion. There was lots of interesting information to read more about, and the given examples were good plus in the text; definitely looking into those masterplans! Maybe for me, the text was sometimes hard to follow, and I needed to read some parts couple of times to get them right. But I think it is just my personal way of receiving new information; someone else might not see it the same way.

    VastaaPoista
  2. Maija5. kesäkuuta 2023 klo 0.04

    Hey Henry! Great choice of topic, it's suprising how many things can be traced back to the Romans. This subject is quite grand for a brief text with a lot of perhaps new words for the reader, hence I get the feeling of difficulty while reading which Niko talked about. Nevertheless, the language is immaculate and I like that you added the picture to improve readability!

    VastaaPoista

Lähetä kommentti

Tämän blogin suosituimmat tekstit

My Digital Skills

I have learned a lot of new digital skills after I started my studies. I study architecture and I do a lot of drawings. At the beginning we did them by hand but, soon had to learn to use contemporary digital tools. Pen and paper are still important tools, but the final work is almost always made with various software. First, we draw in paper, then model in CAD, then render it in different software and then edit it in various adobe software. Another great opportunity to learn new digital skills was about a year ago when I was responsible for keeping Guild of Architecture’s website up to date. I used WordPress to make changes to the website. I also had to learn to use HTML code witch I think was really complicated. Finally, I learned some very basic skill last year almost everyone knowns. I learned How to use Windows. As a person who has always used Macs it was a bit difficult to navigate first, but I am starting to get the hang of it.
Lue lisää