CONTENTS

Introduction
HEINZ REIF and MARCUS FUNCK

Reshaping the European Cities: The Staging of Political Transformation
WIMS BLOCKMANS

The City and the German Nation from the Middle Ages to the Present: The Origins of the Modern Civil Society in the Urban Tradition
WILHELM RIBHEGGE

The Spatial Organization of Markets and Fairs in Italian Cities 15th to 17th Centuries
PAOLA LANARO

Gateways to the Sun: The Urban Arches of Louis XIV
VICTORIA SANGER and ISABELLE WARMOES

Metropolitan Axes in Russia,Petersburg and Moscow: Outward and Inward
Russian Capitals ALEXANDER SHEVYREV

"Paying the Rent:" A Long term Perspective of Changes in an Everyday
Pattern HAKAN FORSELL

Georg Simmel and the Berlin Boheme at the Crossroads of Modernity
DIETMAR JAZBINSEK and RALF THIES