Guide turistiche

Aberdeen Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain) is Scotland's third largest city with an official population of 202,370.
Nicknames include the Granite City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, whose mica deposits sparkle like silver.[4] The city has a long, sandy coastline.
Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, other nicknames have been the Oil Capital of Europe or the Energy Capital of Europe.
The area around Aberdeen has been settled for at least 8,000 years, when small villages lay around the mouths of the River Dee and River Don.
In 1319, Aberdeen received Royal Burgh status from Robert the Bruce, transforming the city economically. The city's two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and the Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world[7] and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.[8]
Aberdeen has won the Britain in Bloom competition ten times, and hosts the Aberdeen International Youth Festival.


History


The Aberdeen area has seen human settlement for at least 8,000 years.[6] The city began as two separate burghs: Old Aberdeen at the mouth of the river Don; and New Aberdeen, a fishing and trading settlement, where the Denburn waterway entered the river Dee estuary. The earliest charter was granted by William the Lion in 1179 and confirmed the corporate rights granted by David I. In 1319, the Great Charter of Robert the Bruce transformed Aberdeen into a property-owning and financially independent community. Granted with it was the nearby Forest of Stocket, whose income formed the basis for the city's Common Good Fund which still benefits Aberdonians.

During the Wars of Scottish Independence, Aberdeen was under English rule, so Robert the Bruce laid siege to Aberdeen Castle before destroying it in 1308 followed by the massacring of the English garrison and the retaking of Aberdeen for the townspeople. The city was burned by Edward III of England in 1336, but was rebuilt and extended, and called New Aberdeen. The city was strongly fortified to prevent attacks by neighbouring lords, but the gates were removed by 1770. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1644-1647 the city was impartially plundered by both sides. In 1644, it was taken and ransacked by Royalist troops after the Battle of Aberdeen. A quarter of the population died in 1647 from an outbreak of bubonic plague.




In the eighteenth century, a new Town Hall was built and the first social services appeared with the Infirmary at Woolmanhill in 1742 and the Lunatic Asylum in 1779. The council began major road improvements at the end of the century with the main thoroughfares of George Street, King Street and Union Street all completed at the start of the next century.


A century later, the increasing economic importance of Aberdeen and the development of the shipbuilding and fishing industries led to the existing harbour with Victoria Dock, the South Breakwater, and the extension to the North Pier. The expensive infrastructure program had repercussions, and in 1817 the city was bankrupt. However, a recovery was made in the general prosperity which followed the Napoleonic wars. Gas street lighting arrived in 1824 and an enhanced water supply appeared in 1830 when water was pumped from the Dee to a reservoir in Union Place. An underground sewer system replaced open sewers in 1865.

The city was first incorporated in 1891. Although Old Aberdeen still has a separate charter and history, it and New Aberdeen are no longer truly distinct. They are both part of the city, along with Woodside and the Royal Burgh of Torry to the south of the River Dee.


Architecture


Union Street, built of granite in 1801-05, runs from Castle Street for nearly a mile (1.5 km), is 70 feet (21 m) wide, and originally contained the principal shops and most public buildings. Part of the street crosses the Denburn ravine (utilised for the line of the Great North of Scotland Railway) by Union Bridge, a granite arch of 132 feet (40 m) span,[16] with portions of the older town still fringing the gorge, 50 feet (15 m) below the level of Union Street.

The Town House, built in Franco-Scottish Gothic style, is at the east end of Union Street. Containing the great hall, with an open timber ceiling and oak-panel walls, the Sheriff Court House and the Town and County Hall contains portraits of various Lord Provosts and distinguished citizens. On the south-western corner is the 210 foot (64 m)[17] grand tower high enough to give a view of the city and surrounding country. Adjoining the Town House is the old North of Scotland Bank building, in Greek Revival style (Now a Restaurant & Bar named after Archibald Simpson).

Other notable buildings on the street are the Town and County Bank, the Music Hall, the Trinity Hall of the incorporated trades (1398-1527, now a shopping centre) and the former office of the Northern Assurance Company. Many of the city's most renowned buildings were designed by local architect Archibald Simpson. Just off Union Street, Marischal College is the second largest granite building in the world.[18] Its present frontage was inaugurated by King Edward VII in 1906, but the central parts by Archibald Simpson are considerably older.

The Mercat Cross, built in 1686 by John Montgomery, is an open-arched structure, 21 feet (6 m) in diameter and 18 feet (5 m) high with a large hexagonal base from the centre of which rises a shaft with a Corinthian capital, on which is the royal unicorn. The base is highly decorated, including medallions illustrating Scottish monarchs from James I to James VII.[17]

Notable religious buildings are the Kirk of St Nicholas, in the centre of the city, with a large kirkyard separated from Union Street by a 147 foot (45 m) long Ionic facade, built in 1830. The divided church within, with a central tower and spire, forms one continuous building 220 feet (67 m) in length. In Old Aberdeen, St. Machar's Cathedral was started in the twelfth century but took centuries to complete with the exception of the period of the episcopates of William Elphinstone and Gavin Dunbar, who completed the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept.[17]

The ancient Brig o' Balgownie, a picturesque single arch spanning the deep black stream, is said to have been built by King Robert I. The Bridge of Dee consists of seven semicircular ribbed arches, is about 30 feet (10 m) high, and was built early in the sixteenth century by Bishops Elphinstone and Dunbar. It was nearly all rebuilt in 1718-1723 and in 1842 was widened from 14 to 26 feet (4 to 8 m) wide