Hill town
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A hill town is any citadel town built upon hills to make invasion difficult. Often protected by defensive walls, steep embankments, or cliffs, such hilltop settlements provided natural defenses for their inhabitants.
In Europe, especially in Italy, Spain, Portugal and southern France, such towns were common.
The Spanish even brought the traditional European hill town to the Americas, a notable example being the 16th century Mexican hill town of Guanajuato. However, fortified hill towns were by no means solely a European creation. For instance, Incan fortified hill towns predated the arrival of the Spanish by many centuries and rival those of Europe. Machu Picchu, an Incan hill town completed in the mid-15th century in Peru, although now in ruins, is considered perhaps the most beautiful hill town ever constructed. Construction of fortified hill towns was common in many civilizations. Ancient examples can also be found in Africa and Asia.
Around the world, the most famous examples are the hilltowns of Darjeeling and Simla.
Mediterranean
[edit]Mediterranean hill towns greatly vary in appearance, but have an "undeniable kinship" among their urban environments.[1] Architects studied their commonalities since the early 1800s (Karl Friedrich Schinkel), but intensive research started with the formation of Team 10 in 1953 and creation of the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD) in 1976.[2]
20th century
[edit]
Hill towns drew major interest of architects in the 1950s-1970s as a urban model that would include "hill-town experience". In Germany, Terrassenhaus buildings by Claus Schmidt, Peter Faller, and Hermann Schröder were erected that combined the idea of a haphazard hill-town with the Teutonic discipline.[3]
In recent years,[when?] Bill Buchanan, Douglas Duany, Lucien Steil and others have studied hill towns with an interest in reviving interest in the enduring form.[citation needed]
Buchanan has argued that the form gives comfort regardless of current threat, as we've evolved to like our back protected while able to view all who approach. It makes our space inhabited large, he contends.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]- List of hilltowns in Northern Italy
- List of hilltowns in Central Italy
- List of hilltowns in Southern Italy
- Hill people
References
[edit]- ^ Habraken, N.J.; Teicher, J. (2000). The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment. Form and Control in the Built Environment. MIT Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-262-58195-0. Retrieved 2024-09-28.
- ^ Schlimme 2016, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Schlimme 2016, p. 153.
Sources
[edit]- Schlimme, Hermann (2016). "The Mediterranean Hill Town: A Travel Paradigm". In Mitrasinovic, Miodrag; Traganou, Jilly (eds.). Travel, Space, Architecture. Burlington: Ashgate. pp. 148–166. ISBN 9781315549712.
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