Maputo vs Triest

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Maputo (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐˈputu]), officially named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital and most populous city of Mozambique. The city is named after chief Maputsu I of the Tembe clan, a subgroup of Tsonga people. Located near the southern end of the country, it is positioned within 120 km (75 miles) of the Eswatini and South Africa borders. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed over a land area of 347,69 km2 (134 sq mi). The Maputo metropolitan area includes the neighbouring city of Matola, and has a total population of 2,717,437. Maputo is a port city, with an economy centered on commerce. It is also noted for its vibrant cultural scene and distinctive, eclectic architecture.Maputo is situated on a large natural bay on the Indian Ocean, near where the rivers Tembe, Mbuluzi, Matola and Infulene converge. The city consists of seven administrative divisions, which are each subdivided into quarters or bairros. The city is surrounded by Maputo Province, but is administered as a self-contained, separate province since 1998. Maputo City is the geographically smallest and most densely populated province in Mozambique. Maputo is a cosmopolitan city, with Bantu, Tsonga languages being more common, Portuguese, and, to a lesser extent, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese languages and cultures present. The area on which Maputo stands was first settled as a fishing village by ancient Tsonga people. It was soon named Lourenço Marques, after the navigator of the same name who explored the area in 1544. The modern city traces its origins to a Portuguese fort established on the site in 1781. A town grew around the fort starting around 1850, and in 1877 it was elevated to city status. In 1898, the colony of Portuguese Mozambique relocated its capital there.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lourenço Marques grew both in population and economic development as a port city. Upon Mozambican independence in 1975, the city became the national capital and was renamed Maputo. During the Mozambican Civil War, the city's economy was devastated. When the war ended, the FRELIMO government launched a program to revive the city's economy, and to clean up the city by forcibly removing criminals, squatters, and undocumented residents. Since then, Maputo's economy has recovered and stability has returned, though crime remains a problem.Maputo has a number of landmarks, including Independence Square, City Hall, Maputo Fortress, the central market, Tunduru Gardens, and Maputo Railway Station. Maputo is known as an aesthetically attractive, if dilapidated, city. With wide avenues lined by jacaranda and acacia trees, it has earned the nicknames City of Acacias and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. The city is known for its distinct, eclectic architecture, with Portuguese colonial Neoclassical and Manueline styles alongside modern Art Deco, Bauhaus, and Brutalist buildings. The historic Baixa de Maputo district is the downtown area. Maputo has a vibrant cultural scene, with many restaurants, music and performance venues, and local film industry. Maputo's economy is centered around its port, through which much of Mozambique's imports and exports are shipped. The chief exports include cotton, sugar, chromite, sisal, copra, and hardwood. In addition to trade, the city has robust manufacturing and service sectors. Several colleges and universities are located in Maputo, including Pedagogical University, São Tomás University, Catholic University of Mozambique, and Eduardo Mondlane University, the oldest in the country.

Source: Wikipedia

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Trieste ( tree-EST, Italian: [triˈɛste] (listen); Slovene: Trst [tə́ɾst]) is a city and a seaport in northeastern Italy. It is towards the end of a narrow strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, which lies approximately 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) south and east of the city. Croatia is some 30 km (19 mi) to the south. Trieste is at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and has a very long coastline, free sea access in Barcola and is surrounded by grassland, forest and karst areas. In 2018, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The metropolitan population of Trieste is 410,000, with the city comprising about 240,000 inhabitants. Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, belonging to it from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century the monarchy was one of the Great Powers of Europe and Trieste was its most important seaport. As a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). In the fin de siècle period at the end of the 19th century it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. Trieste underwent an economic revival during the 1930s, and the Free Territory of Trieste became a major site of the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs after the Second World War.

Trieste, with its deep-water port, is a maritime gateway for Northern Italy, Germany, Austria and Central Europe, as it was before 1918 and is considered the end point of the Maritime Silk Road with its connections via the Suez Canal and Turkey and the other Overland to Africa, China, Japan and many countries in Asia. Since the 1960s, Trieste, thanks to its many international organizations and institutions, has been one of the most important research locations in Europe, an international school and university city and has one of the highest living standards among Italian cities. In 2020, the city was also rated as one of the 25 best small cities in the world in terms of quality-of-life.The city, which lies at the intersection of Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek and Jewish culture, where Central Europe meets the Mediterranean Sea, is considered one of the literary capitals and was often referred to as early New York because of its diverse ethnic groups and religious communities. There are also other national and international names for the city such as "Città della Barcolana", "Trieste città della bora", "città del vento", "Trieste città della scienza – City of Science", "City of the three winds", "Vienna by the sea" or "City of coffee".

Source: Wikipedia