CILT Scotland Walled Towns

Thanks CILT (Chartered  Institute of Logistics and Transport ) Scotland for inviting me to Stirling to talk about Walled  Towns. I now appreciate even more Stirling's own walled  town credentials. Making best use of the public space for people within  every walled town was the theme. Full .pdf of slides will be linked here soon. 
Thanks to Cross Country for sponsoring my travel up and down to Edinburgh  from Bristol.  Time keeping and staff service both impeccable.

Hidden in Plain View- Bristol's High Cross and Walled Old City

David Bruce will give a keynote paper on Bristol's High Cross and Town Walls (See link to full draft paper and below for abstract) at the Hidden Heritage (click to book) one day conference in Saturday 9th April 2016. European Walled Towns Members welcome.

mrwatson64 writes "There has been much excitement in the [Hidden Heritage]conference office and we can't wait to get the final preparations sorted. ... ; we have 17 speakers from the UK and several European countries

The Road on from Ravenna to Hellevoetsluis

European Walled Towns successful AGM and seminar in Ravenna this October has created a platform for activity to serve the interests of its member towns and associate members.
The new election of Drs. Veronica  Stern is particularly welcome.. Boring but important Constitutional matters made significant progress in Ravenna with the application to became an NGO registered in Malta The application  was  submitted in early November - we hear it is under formal consideration by the Registrar. In the meantime a Treasurer has been appointed, who will be working to produce an Account for 2015. See European walled towns.organisation for the President's New Year message.  The 2016 Symposium  will be in Hellevoetsluis in late September.  Programme and invitations to participate will be circulated soon.

Walled towns in the United States?

Interesting note found about the town of St Augustine in Florida. Although the town was only defended by walls across the peninsular base for a period in the eighteenth century, the prime defensive structure - Castillo de San Marcos - remains in good repair as the article by Tom Brennan illustrates. The link is from the 'Fortified Places' website run by Dominic Goode, welcomes contributions.
Other former walled towns in the US include:

• New Amsterdam/New York ('Wall Street' is the give away!)
• Charleston, whose defences were apparently to be strengthened in 1745 to protect against "incursions of Indians...[and] country negroes... quiet at present but have not always been so" (Bruce P.H.[Fortifications Engineer] 'Memoirs' Dublin 1783) - interesting evidence of the threat posed by black American slaves, not so content with their degradation as apologists for slavery have sometimes suggested.
• Albany, the wall remnants of which town were reportedly lost to make a carpark.

Are other examples known?

Galle, Sri Lanka and Hikone, Japan

Two different walled towns:
Incontrovertibly a walled fortified town is Galle in the south of Sri Lanka.  Since ancient times and until the 19th Century rise of Colombo, Galle was Serendip's principal trading port. Its Portuguese then massively Dutch built fortifications largely protected the walled town from the 2004 Tsunami  (although at some extra tragic cost to the rest of the city).
 A World Heritage City, Galle is well preserved with much ongoing conservation work, with a lively and culturally mixed local population and some fine hotels and guest houses and a Heritage Foundation


Hikone, in contrast is described in the Japanese manner as a 'Castle Town' .In central Honshu on Japan's largest lake, the focus of preservation, is the fine typical Edu period (17th Century) castle

with one of the finest, though not the largest, of classic Japanese gardens. However parts of the walled town, including samurai houses and town defences do survive. It would qualify as a Walled Town IF it wished to celebrate urban life, in the shadow of a castle. It is on the Japanese tentative list for World Heritage listing More details can be found from the City of Hikone

A road to Ravenna

Great to be here among walledtowns friends. Four days to get here but quite an enjoyable journey: by train and ship and 250 kilometres cycle. The  climax was the St  Gotthard Pass - not the ascent (just hard) or the summit - a bit of an anti-clmax - BUT the terrific, at time ghastly descent by cycle on rough cobble stones round enumerable hairpins to Airolo - over a thousand metres in 12 kilometres: photos to follow

STOP PRESS - PROGRAMME WITH EXTRA SPEAKER FROM YORK at Ravenna Seminar and AGM

David Warburton of the City of York and Historic Towns Forum  is to give the keynote address on  ‘‘VIEWING YORK’S WALLS IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE’’.

All delegates from walled towns are invited to bring short presentations 5-10 mins about their towns download latest programme details - see events page

Public Seminar and AGM

 Ravenna

30^th Sept – 2^nd Oct 2015

Seminar Fee just €100

Please register via EWT form

PROGRAMME 

WEDNESDAY 30th SEPTEMBER 2015 start

Arrival of participants

20.30 Welcome Reception ...(for full programme)

EUROPEAN WALLED TOWNS - NEW WEBSITE

www.europeanwalledtowns.org is the new website for European Walled Towns.

www.europeanwalledtowns.org

30th Sept - 3rd Oct EWT Seminar and AGM in Ravenna

See Walled Towns Events.
Ravenna is itself walled but famed principally as the World Heritage City of Byzantine Imperial power in Italy
with churches and stunning mosaics to show off.

Narva-Ivangorod nightingales

Visiting deepest Bulgaria - 30 kilometres East of Veliko Tarnovo, have been listening out for a nightingale

and I'm reminded of the EWT Exec, hosted so brilliantly by Narva and including a visit to the Russian fortress across the river - Ivangorod. There we were greeted by the most aggressive chorus of nightingales, one of which I captured on camera and sound