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I can't tell, I have never been to any Slavic city and probably never will. The completely different languages alone are enough of a reason to keep me away. Just like I would never go to China, I would feel lost. Nor has anything in Slavic countries ever interested me, it's like the cold appendix of Central Europe
Well now I'm confused...I assume they're Slavic in the sense that they're located in Slavic countries and have Slavic populations. (nowadays, anyway)
Yes, the history and architecture are a mishmash - much of the historic buildings in some of these places were built by Italians, Germans and others; and some of these places had large non-Slavic populations once upon a time - but I assume we're talking about the present...aren't we?
Well yes, as far as today's population goes - it's Slavic, but what's distinctively Slavic about those cities?
I mean people in Russia usually never refer to St. Pet as "Slavic city," because it doesn't look like one ( vs say Moscow or other older cities of the "Golden Ring,") so they refer to St. Pet as "European city."
So when I've heard here about "Slavic cities," in my mind they should look distinctively different comparably to something French or German, however it doesn't look like they do, unless I'm missing something...
You can't find stricte Slavic cities, because before we become Christians, we lived in small villages in forest (like Smurfs), which was grouped in so called 'opole'.
Still you can find pre-Christian architecture reconstructed in Poland, but I'm afraid it is no Slavic (Biskupin for example was probably by Lusatian culture).
The oldest towns (like Gniezno) burned (or was burned) and was rebuild in newer style. The best example of Polish architecture was build in late medieval and Renaissance (Toruń, Zamość - UNSCO world heritage site for the best example of renaissance market, Gdańsk, Kraków).
The biggest Polish culture center was gone (Wilno now belong to Lithuania, Lwów to Ukraine, Warsaw was burned in WWII, partially rebuilt after war (we have the youngest old town in the World) often in socrealistic style, (many of the monuments, palaces etc. was not rebuilt because of ideological reasons).
If you want to feel Slavic spirit, try to arrive to Wolin, especially during Slavic Festivals (1-3 June, 23-24 June, 23-26 August) or 3-5 August (XVIII Festival of Slavic and Viking - one of the biggest early medieval event in Europe). (there will be crafts workshops in 1 April, 1-6 May, 6-8 July, 27 July-1 August, 28-30 September and bow competition 31 July - 3 August). >>http://www.jomsborg-vineta.com<<
Btw. Moscow style is derived from mid-west style (Persian for example).
My favorite was Rijeka. On the Adriatic, but not a seaside-type tourism city.
By the way, as for identifying "Slavic"---any ethnologist will tell you that language is the first key to the connecting of cultures. If you're in a place where a Slavic language is spoken, it is highly probable that you are in a Slavic place.
No it isn't. Finnish is one of the languages of the Finno-Ugric group, completely unrelated to any of the Indo-European languages, which are the predominant languages of Europe, west Asia and India.
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slavic city
