Overview
Many European medieval cities shared a similar layout. A typical city covered less than 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers) and was surrounded by walls for protection against invaders. The city's main church-in many cases a magnificent, towering Gothic cathedral-stood in the central area. The church was the city's biggest and most expensive building and a symbol of the medieval emphasis on religion. The chief government buildings and the market place were near the church. Wealthy people lived near the center of the city, and the poor lived away from this area. Some poor people lived in huts outside the walls.
Medieval cities, like ancient cities, were dirty and unhealthful. Disease spread rapidly, partly because the people had no sanitary method for disposing of garbage and other wastes. From time to time, disease wiped out a large part of a city's population.
Scholars believe that Eastern medieval cities had the same general layout as European cities. But Eastern trade did not decline, and many Eastern cities were large and prosperous throughout the Middle Ages. African cities also continued to grow, and their trade networks extended to people in nearby forests and to Middle Eastern merchants. Such American Indian cities as Tenochtitlan in what is now Mexico and Cusco in modern-day Peru prospered until the 1500's.
Excerpt adapted from the "City" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999