European Markets
Not the commodities trading type, but the squares where people meet and shop and go to a cafe. The large open urban areas surrounded by wonderful examples of medieval and renaissance architecture.
Our friend, Jenna, has been traveling through Europe from England to Jordan and has been writing and posting pictures of some of the stops in various cities. I was appalled to see one of the market square in Zagreb, with advertising plastered all over the historical structures. It makes me want to boycott any company who would defile such treasures.
When I was in High School, I toured parts of Europe as a summertime exchange student and remembered being in awe of the beauty of the squares that I saw. In hopes that the ones I had seen would not be tarnished as this one was, I did a google search of the Grand Places in Brussels and Bruges, Belgium. Much to my relief, I found them to be unadorned with capitalist propaganda.
I searched further and found a blog which showed photos of ten different European market squares. It appears that not all of them have fallen into the commercialism void.
Thank goodness!
May 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
The “advertising” is only temporary. They are screenings attached to scaffolding to prevent dust and debris from hitting pedestrians during sandblasting, cleaning, repairing, etc. to the structures.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Okay, Chad, that’s better. But Michael says he saw a lot of more permanent ads for Coca Cola and other American crap like that throughout eastern Europe when he traveled and lived there in the early to mid 90’s.