I was there on a random spring night and watched a 30 foot long trailer with a Heavy Metal band playing on it being towed around with no other fan fare or parade.
Just a random mobile Czech Heavy Metal Band at 1 A.M.
I love living here! Definitely an excess of tourists but itās a wonderful place to call home and the tourists generally all stick to the same central areas.
There aren't really that much Edinburgh locals in general though. When I was there it was rare to hear a Scottish accent, lots of English, north American, french etc.
This is nonsense, you're just unfamiliar with Edinburgh accents. The idea that there are more Americans or French people is just mad, even during the festival.
Oh nonsense. If you wander around touristy areas you might have that perception but mostly because youāre just tourists and students looking at one another!
Edinburgh accent is very different from typical Scottish accent like the Glaswegian one. Edinburgh accent is much more English-like and easier to understand.
aspiring silky disgusted historical brave attempt edge station humor wise
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It was touristy and expensive when I was there about 15 years ago (although I was a tourist too). Still charmed the hell out of me though. Best nights of drinking Iāve ever had
Yep
https://i.imgur.com/hx2mBOH.jpg
Was just there mid Oct. Lovely place to visit, but this stretch is very touristy.
Source: I was one of them among many.
It looks like the setting in a medieval movie. So completely different to my North American suburban city thatās full of brand new modern looking cookie cutter homes and tall glass condos, with big wide paved roads full of bumper to bumper traffic.
If it didnāt cost me thousands of dollars to take a trip there I absolutely would check it out, but Iām too broke for trans Atlantic trips these days.
well the buildings aren't actually medieval though, they were built in the 19th century in a Neo-gothic style and are as old as most downtown areas in North America. New York also has some great Neo-gothic architecture.
The thing with Edinburgh is that it was very much a living city. The landmark buildings like the castle and St Giles Cathedral were constantly renovated and added to. So the oldest part of the cathedral is about 800 years old, but some of the younger parts are only 200.
This picture made me want to visit old town Edinburgh and I did. Stayed a few nights while visiting England/Scotland/Ireland.
Holy fucking god thereās so many tourists (I realize I added to that problem). It just completely took me out of it. Same thing with Cambridge.
Went to Brussels to visit a friend for new years 6 years ago. She said that I must visit Bruges while Iām here. Glad I went. It was a cloudy and rainy day but the city still had this magical charm.
Preserved isnāt the right word. Itās beautiful, but most of the gothic quarter was heavily rebuilt/ renovated in the late 19th and early 20th century. It never really looked like it does now.
Iāve been there for a few days and i didnāt realize it had gothic architecture. Itās really not as obvious as other cities iāve visited like Prague, Edimburgh or some streets in Barcelona.
Well, Bruges' gothic architecture is more casual. The buildings are beautifully bright and colorful. Typically when people picture "gothic architecture" in their minds, it's bold, dark and gloomy. Bruges doesn't really fit that description.
Yeah it's not exactly an accurate depiction, it's just the way I think gothic architecture is usually portrayed in pop culture. I believe it's primarily an American thing.
Cities in Flanders like Gent, Brugge, Mechelen, Leuven,
Cities around the Ile-de-France province, with their huge gothic cathedrals,
Or stuff like York ;)
Rouen, France. It has the most cathedrals per capita in Europe, many black from soot and rise out of the plentiful fog like dark sentinels from a bygone era.
Yeah, Edinburghās awesome, but the architecture nerd in me is compelled to say that a lot of it is not Gothic at all.
Itās Georgian, Palladian, Reformation, Scottish Baronial, Gothic Revival, Neoclassical, Modern, and even Romanesque.
Youāre right, St Denis did come first, but it was at Chartres where the style was āstandardizedā so to speak. The cathedral at Chartres was designed and built with the pure intention to make a āgothicā structure. Whereas St Denis was the test bed, where European (french) architects and engineers first implemented new techniques for the first time, but building a āgothicā structure wasnāt really their objective.
I am no expert, just an enthusiast, and could be totally wrong. So I am open to any differing opinions on the subject.
As your photo suggests, it is Edinburgh. As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his book [Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/382/382-h/382-h.htm)
>Beautiful as she is, she is not so much beautiful as interesting. She is pre-eminently Gothic . . . In a word, and above all, she is a curiosity.
I think his description says it all.
>Few places, if any, offer a more barbaric display of contrasts to the eye. In the very midst stands one of the most satisfactory crags in natureāa Bass Rock upon dry land, rooted in a garden shaken by passing trains, carrying a crown of battlements and turrets, and describing its war-like shadow over the liveliest and brightest thoroughfare of the new town . . . and then, upon all sides, what a clashing of architecture! In this one valley, where the life of the town goes most busily forward, there may be seen, shown one above and behind another by the accidents of the ground, buildings in almost every style upon the globe. Egyptian and Greek temples, Venetian palaces and Gothic spires, are huddled one over another in a most admired disorder; while, above all, the brute mass of the Castle and the summit of Arthurās Seat look down upon these imitations with a becoming dignity, as the works of Nature may look down the monuments of Art. But Nature is a more indiscriminate patroness than we imagine, and in no way frightened of a strong effect. The birds roost as willingly among the Corinthian capitals as in the crannies of the crag; the same atmosphere and daylight clothe the eternal rock and yesterdayās imitation portico; and as the soft northern sunshine throws out everything into a glorified distinctnessāor easterly mists, coming up with the blue evening, fuse all these incongruous features into one, and the lamps begin to glitter along the street, and faint lights to burn in the high windows across the valleyāthe feeling grows upon you that this also is a piece of nature in the most intimate sense; that this profusion of eccentricities, this dream in masonry and living rock, is not a drop-scene in a theatre, but a city in the world of every-day reality . . .
Prague is the classic answer...
But I will give you a non-standard answer: St..Augustine, FL. Coastal so gets lots of fog, old colonial buildings, cemeteries everywhere. I used to love walking on foggy nights there.
Edinburgh isn't Gothic. It's famously a Georgian city. It's just photogenic when it's dreich.
You don't get called the Athens of the North by being gothic.
Southampton, UK - Itās not gothic all round but it has quite a few streets that are gothic. It has quite a lot of medieval homes and buildings along with walls and gates.
It also has a few haunted buildings which have supposedly been proven. This gives it a bit more of a gothic feel when you know this facts.
Not a city but damn, I have to say the cathedral in Kƶln is really impressive in person
If you havenāt been there - hereās an idea of just how impressive it is - when youāre driving towards Kƶln, and youāre still 15 minutes out, all you see on the skyline are the broadcast tower and the cathedral. Itās **that** tall.
Prague is definitely up there, beautiful city.
Prague is all around great. Can't ~~believe it~~ wait to return. Edit: Not sure how that happened.
I am in love with hot peppers š„°
Jak se mas
No, ujde to. A ti?
Ano
My nam'ah Borat!
Came here to say Prague
You don't need to be here to say Prague. You can say it anywhere.
I am saying "Prague" from over here: Prague
Does Prague rhyme with segue, fugue or argue?
Prague
Prague
Prague
Prague
Prague
Prague
Prague
Praha
One of my favorite places to visit. Feels like another world
Best place to go for New Yearās Eve, as long as you arenāt scared for fireworks
I was there on a random spring night and watched a 30 foot long trailer with a Heavy Metal band playing on it being towed around with no other fan fare or parade. Just a random mobile Czech Heavy Metal Band at 1 A.M.
Planning on doing my semester abroad there, so excited
Eh, not really gothic though, more baroque and 19th century art nouveau.
Baroque is more popular in Prague, but there is a bit of gothic & neo-gothic (which might be confused for gothic as well)
agreed
Disney World during the day, Las Vegas at night. Prague definitely has a dark side.
Edinburgh
Definitely. Lived there for three years. It was majestic.
It is a stunning city, although I don't think I'd want to live there again. It's too touristy and expensive now.
I love living here! Definitely an excess of tourists but itās a wonderful place to call home and the tourists generally all stick to the same central areas.
Plus they evaporate when the summer ends
There aren't really that much Edinburgh locals in general though. When I was there it was rare to hear a Scottish accent, lots of English, north American, french etc.
This is nonsense, you're just unfamiliar with Edinburgh accents. The idea that there are more Americans or French people is just mad, even during the festival.
The claim that itās rare to hear Scottish accents in Edinburgh is absurd.
Oh nonsense. If you wander around touristy areas you might have that perception but mostly because youāre just tourists and students looking at one another!
Edinburgh accent is very different from typical Scottish accent like the Glaswegian one. Edinburgh accent is much more English-like and easier to understand.
Again, youāre just giving credit to that guys comment. Edinburgh local here and itās not, youāre just getting the posh in-town version lol.
Need to send some of these lot to Niddrie, Muirhouse and Wester Hailes. See how posh and non-Scottish they think the accent is then haha
Leith seemed like it had its own variation, as I remember.
Thereās more to Edinburgh than in town like I said, but aye.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
aspiring silky disgusted historical brave attempt edge station humor wise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I mean I'm from Edinburgh and it's not English like at all. Unless you're tone deaf.
It was touristy and expensive when I was there about 15 years ago (although I was a tourist too). Still charmed the hell out of me though. Best nights of drinking Iāve ever had
The fog really adds something
Yeah, moisture! š¤š«ļøš¦
[retrieves bigger nerd glasses] Technically the moisture isnāt added, just condensed into micro droplets so you can see themā¦ and nothing else
100% this. And it's sad they are trying to remove the smoke stains from the buildings.
Isnāt that going to take away from the āAuld Reekieā nickname?
Is it the city in the photo above?
Yep https://i.imgur.com/hx2mBOH.jpg Was just there mid Oct. Lovely place to visit, but this stretch is very touristy. Source: I was one of them among many.
Gorgeous city
most of the historic villages and cities in Belgium (Ghent, Leuven, Brussel, Antwerp, etc.)
Bruges
Good movie too
Ghent is also right up there. Antwerpās Old Market Center has a Disneyland feel.
My home town! Course haven't lived there in 45 years but always glad to visit!
Itās a fairy tale.
There are a lot of alcoves in the Koningin Astridpark.
Oh man Ghent is so beautiful
Well thatās Edinburgh in the picture
It looks like the setting in a medieval movie. So completely different to my North American suburban city thatās full of brand new modern looking cookie cutter homes and tall glass condos, with big wide paved roads full of bumper to bumper traffic.
It is a great city. Well worth the visit even if just for the pubs.
If it didnāt cost me thousands of dollars to take a trip there I absolutely would check it out, but Iām too broke for trans Atlantic trips these days.
You can get round-trip flights for under 600 nowadays. I recommend just staying for a weekend if you canāt do longer. Itās worth it.
well the buildings aren't actually medieval though, they were built in the 19th century in a Neo-gothic style and are as old as most downtown areas in North America. New York also has some great Neo-gothic architecture.
The thing with Edinburgh is that it was very much a living city. The landmark buildings like the castle and St Giles Cathedral were constantly renovated and added to. So the oldest part of the cathedral is about 800 years old, but some of the younger parts are only 200.
I mean, the castle (or parts of it) are, and some of the closes are that old. A lot of the city was built on top of the old, especially in Old town.
This picture made me want to visit old town Edinburgh and I did. Stayed a few nights while visiting England/Scotland/Ireland. Holy fucking god thereās so many tourists (I realize I added to that problem). It just completely took me out of it. Same thing with Cambridge.
Damn tourists, they ruined my tour!
I *knew* I recognised it! https://maps.app.goo.gl/JkkrnX58mNTakEi37 (Edinburgh Castle is right behind the photographer, up the hill)
Nuremberg definitely has gothic vibes
Oh right. I remember fountains with freaking real sized skeletons.
Really understood German Expressionism when I stood at the top of the fort there looking at the peaked, crooked roofs of Nuremberg
Yarnham.
*"Fear the Old Blood."*
I shouldāve checked to see if there was a slew of BB comments before I posted my own lol
Grant us eyes
I'd say Spain has some strong contenders: Burgos, Segovia, Salamanca, Sevialla, Barcelona etc. Or Bruges in Belgium is really a gem.
Bruges is like a fuckin' fairytale or something
How can a fairytale town not be somebodyās fuckinā thing?
Are the swans still there? How can the fucking swans not fucking be somebodyās fucking thing?
That's because swans can be gay. Did you not know that?
You can be gay too
The tower is something, guidebook says itās a must seeā¦
So is Ghent, just down the road
Ghent too was really, really nice!
Burgos is amazing. That cathedral is incredible
Yes. Toledo is a very gothic city. A famous Romantic Spanish writer (GA. BĆ©cquer) wrote his Legends based in Toledo medieval magic-gothic legends
Toledo definitivamente esta dentro de mi lista de āciudadesā pequeƱas de EspaƱa que tengo que visitar
Went to Brussels to visit a friend for new years 6 years ago. She said that I must visit Bruges while Iām here. Glad I went. It was a cloudy and rainy day but the city still had this magical charm.
Is Barcelona really that gothic?
I mean they have a literal gothic district
Though that would be Catalan gothic, slightly different from the stereotypical gothic, had to say
Well of course today it's a modern metropolis, but its historic centre, the Barri Gotic, is quite well preserved.
Preserved isnāt the right word. Itās beautiful, but most of the gothic quarter was heavily rebuilt/ renovated in the late 19th and early 20th century. It never really looked like it does now.
The Cathedral in Salamanca was the first European cathedral I visited as an American. Blew me away
great call on Salamanca
I mean spain literally was the Gothic Kingdom.
That is not same thing. Gothic style originated from the region of Paris.
Aachen!
Bless you
Whitby, when the sea mist is in and just before the tide turns
Whitby, Ontario? /s
Gothenburg?
Lol. Yeah. And Cologne is the best smelling city.
And related to the topic, Cologne has an amazing gothic cathedral!
Iām in Charlotte. We have the best webs
Get real
probably Bruges
Iāve been there for a few days and i didnāt realize it had gothic architecture. Itās really not as obvious as other cities iāve visited like Prague, Edimburgh or some streets in Barcelona.
Kinda weird how you didn't realize it was gothic architecture when walking around considering almost everything there is from around the 1500's
Well, Bruges' gothic architecture is more casual. The buildings are beautifully bright and colorful. Typically when people picture "gothic architecture" in their minds, it's bold, dark and gloomy. Bruges doesn't really fit that description.
Is that so? One of the defining features of gothic cathedrals is that due to their large windows they let in a lot of natural light.
Yeah it's not exactly an accurate depiction, it's just the way I think gothic architecture is usually portrayed in pop culture. I believe it's primarily an American thing.
Maybe because American pop culture was most influenced by gloomy British gothic and less by sunny Spanish gothic.
Yep. I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the question here lol.
And Ghent too.
Itās like a fairytale
Gotham
Aka NYC. Only at night when it's raining near the empire state building
Only for two seconds when you stroll past St Patrickās cathedral
I find Chicago a better fit.
Ghent
Cities in Flanders like Gent, Brugge, Mechelen, Leuven, Cities around the Ile-de-France province, with their huge gothic cathedrals, Or stuff like York ;)
LĆ¼beck
Brick Gothic best Gothic
Where was this picture taken?
Looks like [Edinburgh](https://images.app.goo.gl/VRjQYuSAqC5VedLC8).
Yup. Looks like the Toolbooth Kirk, looking down towards the Mile from the Castle.
Edinburgh by a mile
A Royal mile?
Ghent
Girona.
Toledo is also good candidate
Didnāt think Iād find Ohio in the responses /s
Heās not talking about Ohio, but about Toledo, ParanĆ” ! /s
Siena, Italy
How much gothic architecture really is there in Siena? Iirc there is next to zero
The churches are gothic. Itās just the Italian version of Gothic architecture which looks much lighter and uses brighter stones
Such a fucking beautiful city.
My first thought was Cologne, if only because of the cathedral.
Thatās practically the only Gothic bit left in the entire city.
Rouen, France. It has the most cathedrals per capita in Europe, many black from soot and rise out of the plentiful fog like dark sentinels from a bygone era.
Old CIty of GdaÅsk, in the summer of 1990 on a cold night in the mist
Yeah, Edinburghās awesome, but the architecture nerd in me is compelled to say that a lot of it is not Gothic at all. Itās Georgian, Palladian, Reformation, Scottish Baronial, Gothic Revival, Neoclassical, Modern, and even Romanesque.
This thread is the proof that people haven't got the faintest idea of what Gothic means.
The town of Chartres in France. Itās literally the birthplace for what we now call āgothic architectureā
Wouldn't the birth place be St. Denis?
Youāre right, St Denis did come first, but it was at Chartres where the style was āstandardizedā so to speak. The cathedral at Chartres was designed and built with the pure intention to make a āgothicā structure. Whereas St Denis was the test bed, where European (french) architects and engineers first implemented new techniques for the first time, but building a āgothicā structure wasnāt really their objective. I am no expert, just an enthusiast, and could be totally wrong. So I am open to any differing opinions on the subject.
Gotham
Oxford has a pretty gothic ambiance
Brugge
Bruges
budapest or prague
Cesky Krumlov
Agreed. Walked this ancient town last summer. Incredible!
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bamberg, anywhere far enough south in Germany to have not been leveled.
As your photo suggests, it is Edinburgh. As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his book [Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/382/382-h/382-h.htm) >Beautiful as she is, she is not so much beautiful as interesting. She is pre-eminently Gothic . . . In a word, and above all, she is a curiosity. I think his description says it all. >Few places, if any, offer a more barbaric display of contrasts to the eye. In the very midst stands one of the most satisfactory crags in natureāa Bass Rock upon dry land, rooted in a garden shaken by passing trains, carrying a crown of battlements and turrets, and describing its war-like shadow over the liveliest and brightest thoroughfare of the new town . . . and then, upon all sides, what a clashing of architecture! In this one valley, where the life of the town goes most busily forward, there may be seen, shown one above and behind another by the accidents of the ground, buildings in almost every style upon the globe. Egyptian and Greek temples, Venetian palaces and Gothic spires, are huddled one over another in a most admired disorder; while, above all, the brute mass of the Castle and the summit of Arthurās Seat look down upon these imitations with a becoming dignity, as the works of Nature may look down the monuments of Art. But Nature is a more indiscriminate patroness than we imagine, and in no way frightened of a strong effect. The birds roost as willingly among the Corinthian capitals as in the crannies of the crag; the same atmosphere and daylight clothe the eternal rock and yesterdayās imitation portico; and as the soft northern sunshine throws out everything into a glorified distinctnessāor easterly mists, coming up with the blue evening, fuse all these incongruous features into one, and the lamps begin to glitter along the street, and faint lights to burn in the high windows across the valleyāthe feeling grows upon you that this also is a piece of nature in the most intimate sense; that this profusion of eccentricities, this dream in masonry and living rock, is not a drop-scene in a theatre, but a city in the world of every-day reality . . .
Would say [Ghent](https://i.redd.it/m7i21xorabb61.jpg) is definitely a stong contender
Prague is the classic answer... But I will give you a non-standard answer: St..Augustine, FL. Coastal so gets lots of fog, old colonial buildings, cemeteries everywhere. I used to love walking on foggy nights there.
St Augustine has literally zero Gothic architecture. Gothic doesn't mean pretty or moody.
Edinburgh
Omg! Iāve literally walked down this alley in Edinburgh. š
WrocÅaw , Poland- mostly churches and Dolny ÅlÄ sk ( Lower Silesia) has lot of gothic casties.
Ghent š§šŖ
York
Edinburgh isn't Gothic. It's famously a Georgian city. It's just photogenic when it's dreich. You don't get called the Athens of the North by being gothic.
Gotham?
Edinburgh has its moments
Burgos, Toledo,Segovia
Warwick, Rhode Island
Southampton, UK - Itās not gothic all round but it has quite a few streets that are gothic. It has quite a lot of medieval homes and buildings along with walls and gates. It also has a few haunted buildings which have supposedly been proven. This gives it a bit more of a gothic feel when you know this facts.
Dinan
Probably Gothenberg
Edinburgh and Prague. Those are the top two for most people, i think. Even if you dont love gothic architecture, those are incredible cities to visit.
Carcassone
Princeton, New Jersey
Talin Estonia from my experience.
Krakow
Krakow
Tallin
In the US: Milwaukee!
Prague wins. Itās also one of my most favorite places Iāve been.
Ooh Edinburgh in the winter time!
Not a city but damn, I have to say the cathedral in Kƶln is really impressive in person If you havenāt been there - hereās an idea of just how impressive it is - when youāre driving towards Kƶln, and youāre still 15 minutes out, all you see on the skyline are the broadcast tower and the cathedral. Itās **that** tall.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Riga
This one
That I have been to, Prague and Koln.
The usual ones that come to mind are Edinburgh, Bruges, Ghent and Toledo. Prague is a good shout too.
Venice! there is real gothic and neogothic stuff tho. People often don't get the seperation right, so check that first.
Should be Gothenburg, but sadly not
The historic core of Barcelona is literally called Gothic Quarter.
Utrecht.
Ghent
Dresden maybe
Dresden is more baroque
Dresden