GeoJournal 51: 1–2, 2000. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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Preface

Geographers have long been interested in capital cities as special cities. Although they traditionally dealt with locational issues (such as the optimal location of the capital city for both an efficient internal organisation of the state and an optimal protection against external threats) or with the importance of core areas in the developmental interpretation of state formation, geographers have been increasingly fascinated by the role of capital cities in national identity and iconography of modern states connecting their interests with those in other disciplines. This collection of papers brings together contributions from various disciplines, ranging from geography, urban history, architecture, to town planning. All the contributions originate in papers presented in December 1999 at an international conference organised by the Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment (AME), a research institute of the Department of Geography and Planning of the Universiteit van Amsterdam. The conference was entitled ‘The European Capital City, 1850–2000: Command centre, national showcase, cultural arena’ and was attended by about 30 researchers. This first part of this special issue features a comparative study of the relation of capital cities and their states and five case studies. Papers in the second part address changes in the functions of capital cities in general, as well as more specifically in the European Union, and the twelfth paper consists of a concluding discussion. Michiel Wagenaar examines the relation of capital cities and their states in a comparative perspective. He introduces Paris as the ‘mother of all capitals’ where civic engineers under Hausmann’s leadership made the city worthy of a respectable nation. While many rulers tried to copy Paris in their own capital, other capital cities such as London and Amsterdam dissented. Wagenaar suggests a political and administrative approach to these contrasting townscapes and shows how the nature of the state conditioned the legal and financial tools to realize large-scale urban interventions. In the first case-study, Anna Notaro examines the New Mussolinian City as the spatial expression of the achievements of the fascist regime, that was to be exhibited at the occasion of the Esposizione Universale di Roma (the World Exhibition in Rome), planned in 1942. The reconnection with Classical and Imperial Rome and the imperialist ambition of the Duce were translated into cityscape through the active contribution of artists, architects and urban planners. Imperial London is analysed by David Gilbert and Felix Driver in its multiple geographies. In the absence of statesponsored projects to parallel the rebuilding of Paris and Brussels, London was not a failed imperial city; instead it was the expression of a particular type of imperialism. Gilbert & Driver map Imperial London by taking us on a tour of the cityscapes connected to the British Empire.

While London was the undisputed centre of the British Empire, the competition between the two Russian capital cities is remarkable. Moscow ‘the heart of Russia’ emerged in 1432 and remained the capital of Russia, until Peter the Great founded the new capital (1712): St. Petersburg, ‘A window to Europe’. After the Russian revolution, the capital city was moved back to Moscow for security reasons, where it remained after the end of socialism. Olga Gritsai and Herman van der Wusten address the impact of the political regime on both the city chosen as a shop window and the abandoned capital city in these different periods. A contrasting case to the authoritarian Russian experience of capital formation is presented by The Hague, the disputed showcase of the Dutch state, as it is not the official capital of the Netherlands, rather the modest seat of governmental institutions. Esther Agricola explores the ambitions of the Dutch state to represent itself and its national identity through the urban and architectural design of The Hague. The last case study deals with a regional capital: Barcelona. Francisco Javier Monclús analyses the aspirations of the Catalan city, its traditional competition with Madrid, its attempts to emulate European capital cities (especially Paris), and its recent strategies to play a prominent role in a Europe of the regions. The remaining contributions focus more specifically on recent social changes and their impact on capital cities. Gertjan Dijkink defines capital cities as political frontiers, because of the pioneering ways of life of certain groups. He wonders about what will become of political frontiers in the information society that has also been described as ‘society without a centre’. Dijkink argues that capitals – even stripped of their governmental functions – may offer a symbolic environment that precisely satisfies the wants of those who wish to politicise a way of life. Paul Claval discusses the consequences of European integration for the system of European capital cities. He assesses the specifics of the European Union and the European capital city by comparing them to different types of European states and capital cities. But he also evaluates the effects of the decline of the upper level of the political functions on European capital cities. Carola Hein addresses the issue of a capital for Europe in more detail. She shows how national interests made it impossible to choose a site for such a capital city, let alone the design of such a capital. She further analyses the resulting decentralisation of capital city functions and their physical impact on the three cities hosting the main institutions of the European Union: Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. The particulars of Brussels are examined in the contribution by Evert Lagrou. He shows how the multiple capital functions of Brussels (capital of Belgium and of the European Union but also capital of Flanders, of the French

2 Community and of the Capital City Region) have affected city planning and analyses the rivalries between the planners and vocal residential groups. He claims that this rivalry has harmed Brussels’ reputation. Then again, the European Union is the topic of the contribution by Virginie Mamadouh, in which she explores new information and communication technologies as a functional equivalent of the capital city. She examines the websites of the key institutions of the European Union to assess whether and how they fullfil three main functions of capital cities: command centre, showcase and cultural arena.

Finally, Herman van der Wusten pulls some general threads from the different papers. He discusses the relation between political rulers and their capital cities. He explores political explanations for the existence of different types of capital cities and addresses the importance of the period of capital city formation to conclude with a research agenda centred on iconography and cityscapes. Michiel Wagenaar Virginie Mamadouh Gertjan Dijkink