Views of cities

In the early medieval reality, cities ceased to the same extent to carry out the structuring social role of centers of power and culture. Cities were agrarian; craft and trade fell into decay. And on the whole, the civilizational space was agrarianized, which testified to the onset of the "dark centuries" - the complete, undivided kingdom of the village, a decrease in the level of urban life. The institute of citizenship of citizens with secular power in cities was degraded, the authority of the church was affirmed in them, and the cities themselves became the bishops' residences. From the second half of the 6th century bishops were established in them, and already bishops took care of the city and its population. They took upon themselves the fulfillment of the direct functions of civil authority - they built and restored defensive fortifications, water pipes, canals, dams, were engaged in charity work and the formation of clergy and townspeople. After the German conquests, the church turned into the only refuge of written culture and a repository of knowledge. All this to a large extent served to spread the ideals of the Church, and the image of the city began to be associated with its authority. The place of ancient philosophy with ideals and ideas about virtues, the human mind, divine mind, intellectual activity, harmony was taken by metaphysics-theology, which became the soul of the church. And the domination of the church over the European spirit with full force continued until the 14th century.

People on our planet live in any terrain, while it does not matter to them whether it is hot or cold. But there are places on Earth where living is hard for most people. For many of them, cold settlements is the homeland on which they have lived since childhood and therefore it is easier for them to endure such difficult climatic conditions.

The Russian city of Verkhoyansk leads the list of cities in the world with the lowest air temperature. At the beginning of the XXI century, only 1,434 people lived here. This city has a rather long history: the first mention of it dates back to 1638, even then gold was mined here. In the mid-19th and early 20th centuries Verkhoyansk was a place of exile for political prisoners. In many ways, the reason was very cold local winters: winter temperatures often drop below - 50 ˚С. And in 1892, the lowest temperature on the planet was recorded here - 67.7 ° C.

The American town of Barrow in Alaska is located closest to the Arctic Circle from other settlements in Alaska. It is notable for the fact that it is often possible to observe the northern lights here, as well as the fact that it is built in the permafrost zone. The average winter temperature here often drops below -20 ˚С, and summer is always cool. The absolute minimum at Barrow once reached - 53 ˚ C.

For many Russians, the city of Yakutsk is a symbol of Siberian winter. Usually the winter temperature is often lower - 40 ° C, and can stay almost until the beginning of May. The record readings of the thermometer in Yakutsk were recorded at around 63 ° C. Despite such a harsh climate, the city is home to over 250 thousand people who are not at all afraid to live and work in such difficult temperature conditions.

The North American city of International Falls is located in the United States, Minnesota and is the administrative capital of Kuchiching County. This city is often called the "refrigerator of the nation", because the average annual temperature here does not exceed + 2 ˚ C. The local winters are very long and snowy - over 166 cm of snow falls during the year. Therefore, International Falls is inhabited by only about 7 thousand inhabitants.

In the city of Fraser, which is located in the state of Colorado, USA, there are only about 900 inhabitants who are not afraid of the low average annual temperature. Almost all year round in the Rocky Mountains the air does not warm above 0 ˚С.

The American town of Umiet is located beyond the Arctic Circle and has also been included in the list of the most iced settlements in the world. The average annual air temperature here does not rise above - 10 ˚С. It’s hard to get here, as there are no highways and railways in this area. The only modes of transport available are river and air.

The Norwegian city of Hell has a very eloquent translation - from the Viking language its name means "hell". The third part of the year there is a low air temperature, usually winter lasts from December to March. By the way, in February it is not so cold here, especially by the standards of Verkhoyansk, only 7 ˚С.

The Canadian village of Snege was included in the list of the coldest places on the planet due to the fact that on February 3, 1947 an abnormally low temperature was recorded here - 62.8 ° C. Prior to this fact, Snejj was known as a settlement of prospectors who arrived in Klondike during the time of the gold rush that swept the country.

On January 23, 1971, the American Prospect Creek in Alaska surprised its residents with an unusually low air temperature, which dropped to - 62.1 ° C.

Leadership as a global “freezer” is held by Vostok station on Antarctica. It was here that on July 21, 1983, the lowest air temperature was noted, which amounted to 89.2 ° C. Summer in Antarctica can be called conditional, so at this time of the year the temperature "rises" to -20 ˚С.

Starting from ancient times and then for many centuries, the economic basis of any traditional (pre-industrial) society and its city - East-South-Middle-Asian, Arab-Muslim, North African, European, etc. agriculture remained, despite the fact that craft was successfully developing and trade flourished (especially in coastal cities). The city itself was also often an administrative, religious, spiritual, cultural center of vast territories and even the whole empire. The emergence of many cities was directly related to the development of irrigated agriculture, the laying of plantations of agricultural and industrial crops, the breakdown of orchards, the construction of irrigation systems and water distribution facilities. The "agrarian" economy dictated and determined the structure of the city itself - its space, part of which was occupied by arable land, garden crops, was buried in gardens, and irrigation canals and irrigation structures cut the entire territory. In the East, special city services observed and regulated the distribution of water in the city and its district.

Since ancient times there is a conscious understanding of the importance of the city. Since ancient times, from the beginning of urbogenesis, the concept of the city as a magical, sacred force that generates ethnic groups, people, civil communities, society and the state has been preserved. And in this capacity he opposed anarchy, decay and social chaos. In antiquity, the idea of ​​a "city" was conveyed by the words - "policy", "civitas", "urbs". They meant a community of full citizens, together with an area subject to it, coinciding with the concept of the state. In its entirety, the meaning of these concepts was presented by the ancient city as "the highest sacred value and form of self-consciousness of a citizen, who in the city is protected by civil law, the patronage of gods and citizens, and is one with everyone in caring for the freedom and prosperity of the city and citizens." For the authors of ancient literature, abstract concepts derived from the word urbs - “urbanus”, “urbanitas” reflected different aspects of cultural existence in the city, including living conditions and properties of a person brought up in an environment of complex urban life. In these concepts, the fundamental ideas of ancient civilization were reflected and fixed - the image of the views of the cities as a symbol of culture with its principles and spiritual qualities of its citizens. The cultural ideal was the form of human communication in the city, based on stoic virtues: reasonableness, justice, courage, dignity, beauty (citizens and architectural structures) and moderation, which allow a person to live and act according to the laws of reason and world harmony.

An economically ancient city could exist only in organic unity with the village and the main occupation - agriculture, which used mainly slave labor. Crafts and trade were handled by a population that did not have the rights of free full citizens - freedmen, strangers, natives of provinces, etc. The socio-economic and political cohesion of the city and the village allowed the city to dominate the village, and the dominant socio-political power of the city-polis concentrated management (military and civilian) and intellectual activity. The city was primarily a center of power, culture, and remained in that capacity only with the absolute predominance of slave labor. With the loss of the all-encompassing significance of slavery, an increase in population, and an increase in the number of free citizens in the city and provinces, there was a desolation of ancient cities and their loss of their role in social development. The fall of the ancient city was facilitated by both internal factors and external factors - the German conquests, which brought with them different economic relations and forms of land ownership, views on community members as independent entities, land owners. All this together led to the emergence of new trends that led to the formation of new cities after the disruption of continuity in urban development.