ABSTRACT
Ask about the political subtext of picturesque urban design, and the usual answer hints at a conservative or anti-modern attitude behind this design strategy, one that often refers back to Camillo Sitte and his ideals. This quite popular viewpoint has been recently sustained by apparently scientific argumentation, raising the general accusation of nationalism and racism.1 Thus a primarily aesthetic question is contaminated with political arguments that tend ultimately to condemn the urban form: an aesthetic question is tackled and solved with a moral judgment – without reasoning whether the moral arguments really apply.
