“I was fascinated and intrigued by the nature of these capitals and why these particular cities, rather than others, became capitals,” says Dr Łukasz Galusek. In conversation with Justyna Nowicka, in the latest episode of Radio Kraków’s podcast “An Alternative Map of Central Europe”, the author of the book „Wyobrażone stolice. Miasta monarchii habsburskiej jako centra narodów 1815-1918″ shows that the nations of our region first ‘created’ their own capitals using a DIY approach, and only later came to have states of their own. Through architecture, culture, national institutions and the consistent work of the collective imagination, they crafted the urban backdrops for their future sovereignty. Politics and treaties merely added borders to the map later on, a map that had already been formed in the minds of the inhabitants.
Production: Radio Kraków
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