ABSTRACT
We have seen how large-scale plans were made and to some extent implemented in a number of European capital cities in the decades after 1850. Important steps had of course already been taken in the first half of the century, for example Hild’s 1804 plan for the suburb of Lipótváros in Budapest, the new planning of Helsinki in the second decade of the century, the planning of Köpenicker Feld in Berlin which was initiated during the 1820s, and the project plan for the expansion of Athens a few years later. Mention should also be made of the construction of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, Regent Street in London, Carrer de Ferran in Barcelona and, albeit on a more modest scale, of Karl Johans gate in what was then Christiania. And of course in several places there were also discussions which did not lead to any concrete results. Paris is probably the prime example of this, since after the July Revolution the question of resuming Napoleon I’s plans for street improvements was debated on several occasions; Napoleon’s scheme in turn had been largely derived from the 1793 Plan des artistes. But the projects that were realized in the second half of the nineteenth century were on quite a different scale and of quite another type: it was no longer a question of creating splendid ceremonial towns for princes, but of building large, modern, efficient cities for a new age.
