Bucharest vs Barletta

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Bucharest (UK: BOO-kə-REST, US: -⁠rest; Romanian: București [bukuˈreʃtʲ] (listen)) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial center. It's in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N 26°06′14″E, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km (37.3 mi) north of the Danube River and the Bulgarian border. Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. It became the capital of Romania in 1862 and is the center of Romanian media, culture, and art. Its architecture is a mixture of historical (Neoclassical and Art Nouveau), interbellum (Bauhaus, and Art Deco), communist era and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the city's elegant architecture and the elegance of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of'Paris of the East' (Romanian: Parisul Estului) or'Little Paris' (Romanian: Micul Paris). Although buildings and districts in the historic city center were heavily damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes, and even Nicolae Ceaușescu's program of systematization, many lived and have been renovated. In recent years, the town has been undergoing an economic and cultural boom. It's one of the fastest-growing high-tech cities in Europe, according to Financial Times, CBRE, TechCrunch, and many others. UiPath, a global startup based in Bucharest, has reached over $10 billion in valuation. Since 2019, Bucharest hosts the biggest high tech summit in Southeast Europe (Romania Blockchain Summit).

In 2016, the historical city center was listed as'endangered' by the World Monuments Watch. In 2017, Bucharest was the European city with the highest growth of tourists that stay over night, according to the Mastercard Global Index of Urban Destinations. In terms of the previous two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019, Bucharest ranked as the European destination with the highest potential for development based on the identical study.According to the 2011 census, 1,883,425 inhabitants live within the city limits, a decrease from the 2002 census. Adding the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.27 million people. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the Romanian government used 2.5 million individuals as the basis for reporting disease rate in the city. Bucharest is the fourth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after Berlin, Madrid, and Rome. Economically, Bucharest is the most flourishing town in Romania. The city has a lot of large conference facilities, educational institutes, cultural places, conventional'shopping arcades' and recreational areas. The town proper is administratively known as the'Municipality of Bucharest' (Municipiul București), and has the same administrative level as that of a nationwide county, being further subdivided into six sectors, each regulated by a local mayor.

Source: Wikipedia

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Barletta (Italian pronunciation: [barˈletta] (listen)) is a city, comune of Apulia, in south eastern Italy. Barletta is the capoluogo, together with Andria and Trani, of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It has a population of around 94.700 citizens. The city's territory belongs to the Valle dell'Ofanto, indeed, the Ofanto river crosses the countryside and forms the border between the territory of Barletta and that of Margherita di Savoia. The mouth of the river is in the territory of Barletta. The area of Barletta also includes part of the battlefield of Cannae. This is a very important archeological site, remembered for the major battle in 216 B.C. between the Romans and the Carthaginians, won by Hannibal. The site has been recognisied as Città d'Arte (city of art) of Apulia in the 2005 for the beautiful architecture. Cannae flourished in the Roman period and then after a series of debilitating Saracen attacks, was finally destroyed by the Normans and then abandoned in the early Middle Ages. Barletta is home to the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue, representing a Roman Emperor (perhaps Theodosius II). This statue, called "Eraclio" by the inhabitants of Barletta, is about 4 metres (13 feet) tall, and remains the biggest statue that survives from the late Roman Empire (i.e. the Roman Empire after Constantine). According to a local folk story, Eraclio saved the city from a Saracen attack. Seeing the Saracen ships approaching Barletta's coast, Eraclio waited for them on the sea shore.

Here Eraclio acted as if he was crying so the Saracens asked him why he was sad and Eraclio answered that he was sad because he was the smallest among Barletta's inhabitants and so everybody made fun of him. The Saracens thought that Barletta's inhabitants were all giants so left the coast, fearing to face them. In 1503 Barletta was the location of the disfida di Barletta ("Joust of Barletta"), a battle during which 13 Italian knights commanded by Ettore Fieramosca challenged and defeated an equal number of French knights who were at the time prisoners of war, in a joust held near Andria. This episode was documented in 1833 by Massimo d'Azeglio, who wrote the novel "Ettore Fieramosca o la Disfida di Barletta". In the book the author regards this episode as one of the earliest manifestations of Italian national pride. The city at the time was fairly loosely besieged by French forces, and occupied by a Spanish army under the command of Gonzalo de Cordoba the 'Gran Capitan'. Barletta has one gold medal for military valour and another one for civil valour, for its resistance to an incursion of German Fallschirmjäger who destroyed the port in order to prevent its falling intact into the hands of the advancing British Eighth Army during World War II. Barletta also has the tragic reputation of being the location where the last 2 Protestants were burned alive at the stake in 1866 as a result of the Roman Inquisition which began in Italy in 1542.

Source: Wikipedia