by Twentieth-century Europe has unleashed unprecedented destructive violence upon itself. Hundreds of cities were shelled, mortared, firebombed and fought over. Roofs, leveled cathedrals, pulverized cloth halls and town halls and streets were so destroyed that their own course could no longer be recognized under the gaps and gullies of high rubble. From the French port of St. Nazaire in the west, to Stalingrad in the east, European streets and squares, towns and cities have never been so devastated by the conflicts.
What phoenix should rise from the ashes? British planners were convinced. Cities should be conceived anew. JB Priestley visited the beautiful medieval city of Coventry in 1934, it was so attractive, he wrote, “it could have been moved to Italy”. The Luftwaffe damaged two-thirds of the city’s buildings and destroyed 4,300 houses. Coventry’s city architect, Donald Gibson, did not hide his pleasure. “The bombs were a blessing in disguise,” he wrote. He proceeded to demolish most of the remaining medieval buildings in the city. Coventry is not like Italy now.
Many assume that Britain’s response after the war was the standard response. Was not. Britain’s tendency to tear down and start over was the outlier, not the norm. Throughout Europe, streets were often recreated where they had previously run, and buildings were rebuilt as they were or in a simplified version. This organic approach was faster, cheaper and allowed citizens to retain their sense of home and history. And it still continues.
Today, we visit many of these towns and cities as tourists, often unaware that their “historic” streets are only for a lifetime. Three such reinvented cities worth seeing are Warsaw, Dresden and Budapest.
Eighty-five percent of Warsaw was destroyed in World War II, its population dropped from a million to a few thousand. The Polish government gave up on moving the capital to Lodź and abandoning the city. Two officers, Stanislaw Lorentz and Jan Zachwatowicz, argued instead that the revival of Warsaw was “the last victorious act in the fight with the enemy”. Using 18th-century paintings by Canaletto’s pupil Bernardo Bellotto as a guide, the meticulous reconstruction was agreed in February 1945, before the war had even ended, and began immediately. The surviving population was the workforce. When I visited ten years ago with a senior Polish official whose mother was working on the reconstruction, I asked him, “How did the post-war government manage this?” He replied, “That is a Western question. The people were given bricks and food and put to work.”
For many it was a lifetime of labour. The town square, the surrounding streets, the city walls and finally the Royal Castle were rebuilt, brick by brick, corbel by corbel, over 40 years. In 1980 Unesco placed the (new) Old Town on the World Heritage list. The Jablonowski Palace was only completed in 1997. When President Biden gave a speech in front of the Royal Castle a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, choosing it as a symbol of freedom and limitless culture, how many of his audience world that knew the building existed. less than 40 years old?
Dresden’s modern revival is equally impressive. A city that was not worth visiting 30 years ago is reinventing itself as Florence on the Elbe. The revenge of Dresden in 1945 is famous. During the months of the war, 1,299 Allied bombers leveled the city of Baroque beauty. Symbolically, one of Europe’s great churches, the Frauenkirche or Church of Our Lady, burned for two days and nights before it fell.
The sequel is less known. The city center remained empty for years. Early reconstruction was ugly and streetless. But the people wanted their city back. And, even under communism, they started to get it. The Zwinger palace and gardens were reconstructed by 1963. The Semper opera house reopened in 1985. The restoration was accelerated by the reunification of Germany. Dresdeners en masse called for the recreation of their lost Frauenkirche and the entire town center. Architects protested but the will of ordinary people was irresistible. More than 13,000 donors from around the world (and the British are reported to be the second largest contributor) gave £90m for what was called the “Dresden miracle”. On 30 October 2005, the reconstructed Frauenkirche bells were rung for the first time in 60 years. Many visitors wept with joy. Interestingly, it was British silversmith, Alan Smith, whose father piloted one of the RAF’s Dresden raid bombers. Sometimes history takes a long time to get to the right place. Around the dome the streets of the city are returning to their historic form. All the baroque buildings are modern buildings apart from many citizens and tourists.
Much of Budapest was also destroyed, including its totemic Chain Bridge and Buda Castle on the west bank of the Danube, mainly in the 1944-45 siege of the city. You wouldn’t know it now. The Chain Bridge was reconstructed by 1949. In the 1950s and 1960s, the medieval fortifications were rebuilt, complete with towers, walls, gatehouses and the gothic wing of the Royal Palace. Other interventions were less satisfactory.
The palace’s baroque interior partially survived the war but, seeking royal privilege, was largely destroyed. However, by 1987 Unesco was able to declare Buda Castle as a World Heritage Site, even though much of it was new. Since then, under the controversial Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, the reconstruction policy has been continued and new and huge baroque palaces, pulverized by war, are being rebuilt for nothing: the Royal Riding Hall and Garrison Barracks are Completed castles.
The huge Palace of the Archduke Joseph is next. Tourists love it recently. But if you want to enjoy a recreated pre-war Budapest, you might want to go early. There are terrifying plans to build a skyscraper on the other side of the Danube. You can enjoy the hitherto unrivaled Habsburg skyline – but for how long?
Nicholas Boys Smith is the founding chairman of Create Streets. A history of the streets of London, No Free Parkingavailable from Bonnier Books.
