town squares

This Estonian Town Hall Square has been a marketplace since the middle ages.  It looks like it might just be setting up, or closing down, in this image.  The building on the far left is the town hall and on top of the spire is a weather vane that has been there since 1530.

Below is another town square, this time in Lithuania.  Kaunas is the second largest city in that country and was a temporary capital during the interwar period.  The building in the centre is the town hall. The rivers are the Nemunis and Neris.

and, to round out the Baltic states,  Riga. With another public square in the middle left.  The buildings of the Town Hall Square were all rebuilt as everything was destroyed during WWII.

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia with northern European cities for Thursday Postcard Hunt

rooftops and people

 

public square

 

notre-dame

Paris, showing a relatively empty public square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral

 

wertheim

Leipziger Platz featuring the flagship Wertheim department store. At 26,000 square metres, it was the biggest store in Europe when it opened in 1897.

lost river

 

Place de Brouckère has some of the city's most important entertainment venues. It was completed around 1870, after the River Senne was covered over.

george square

Named for King George III

gables

Zacharias of Hradec Square, which is actually triangular in shape. The prettily painted gabled houses were an expression of the social status of the resident 16th C burghers.

le pantheon

Originally built as a church, it is now a secular mausoleum — which meant that the great Gothic windows had to be blocked up. Some of the people buried here include Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Pierre and Marie Curie,

carpet

Every two years, Belgium lets loose with the begonias and creates a carpet for the Grand Place in Brussels. This one is from 2004. Each carpet is made from over a million flowers and is put together by volunteers from all over Belgium.

Red Square

around 1910
It was not a World Heritage Site when this photo was taken. Not sure if the cobbles are still there.