Capital City Origins ~ Europe Part 2

Welcome back, unless this is your first visit to one of my blogs, in which case...Come in, sit down, take your shoes off and relax, you're in safe hands.

This is the second of my blogs about the names of cities, capital cities no less, their origins and occasionaly a little bit of history.

In this sequel to the first blog in this series (If you missed the first one, shame on you ! You can find it HERE) we shall be delving into the etymology of each capital city's name from Belgium down to Iberia and most of western Europe.

So without further ado, let us get going on our adventure......

The name Brussels (Bruxelles, French, Brussel, Dutch) is thought to derive from the Old Dutch language. Bruocsella, Broekzele, or Broeksel meaning marsh and home or "home in the marsh".

The Bishop of Cambrai, Saint Vindicianus is thought to have been the first to reference the city as Brosella when the settlement was little more than a hamlet in 695.

BRUSSELS = HOME IN THE MARSH

Our first city with the same name as it's country, Luxembourg has been at the crossroads of Europe since Roman times, literally at a crossroads as two Roman roads crossed here.

In 963, Siegfried I of Ardennes built his castle here called Lucilinburhuc meaning "small castle". Over the years Siegfried's name for his fortress was used for the lands around the castle. That's why the capital is the same as the country.

LUXEMBOURG = SMALL CASTLE

Completely unrelated to the Paris in Greek mythology, this city takes it's name from a Gallic tribe, Parisii. They lived in the area now occupied by the city around the time of the Roman Empire.

The origin of the tribe's name has been considered as either cauldron, commanders, or spear people. I personally like the "Spear People" theory so I'm going to go with that one. (My blog, my rules !)

PARIS = LAND OF THE SPEAR PEOPLE

There are three main theories on the origin of the name Madrid. None have been completely agreed upon. The most popular theories are....

1. Celtic origin. From Magetoritum with the ritu part meaning "ford" over a river.

2. Arabic origin. From magra or mayrit meaning "water stream" and "spring" respectively.

3. Mozarabic dialect origin. From matricis also meaning "water stream".

So, in my thoughts, as they all have a stream or water involved in each theory that would be more or less the origin of the name Madrid. So I'll go out on a limb here and say....

MADRID = PLACE ON A WATER STREAM

Portugal's capital city may have been named from the Celtic language Olissipo or Lissipo and then adapted by visiting Phoenicians and Romans. Olissipo stems from the Latin word Ulyssippo which refers to "founded by Ulysses". However, as Ulysses was a mythical hero, this seems doubtful.

Strangely. another theory that is often discounted is that the name comes from the Phoenician Alis-Ubo meaning "safe harbour". To me this makes more sense, but what do I know ? Anyway that's what I'm going with, if only for sensibility.

LISBON = SAFE HARBOUR

Nestled amongst the mountains of the Pyrenees, this city takes it's name from the country it represents. Meaning "Andorra the Town" to distinguish it from the rest of the principality.

But what of the meaning of Andorra you ask.... I'm glad you asked that, because two theories have similar outcomes. From the Arabic al-darra meaning "the thickly wooded place" and from the Navarro-Aragonese language andurrial meaning "land covered with bushes".

Therefore, in my mind......

ANDORRA LA VELLA = TOWN IN A FOREST

Being a "city state", obviously there thechnically isn't a capital city, the whole country is it's own capital. The tiny principality takes it's name from a nearby ancient Phocaean Greek colony. The Ligurians refered to it as Monoikos which can be split into the Greek words Monos meaning "single" and Oikos meaning "house". The "house" was actually a temple supposedly built by Hercules as he was passing through !

MONACO = SINGLE HOUSE

According to folklore, Berchtold V, Duke of Zahringen, founder of the city, decided to name it after the first animal he saw whilst hunting. This happened to be a bear.

It seems also likely though that Bern was simply named after Verona, Italy, that at the time was also called Bern in the Middle High German language. In fact the city was refered to as Bern im Uechtland to distinguish it from Verona.

However, in the 1980's a zinc tablet was found that shows the name probably came from the Celtic berna meaning "cleft".

BERN = CLEFT (in the land)

Surrounded by Italy, one would think that San Marino has Italian origins, it doesn't.

Named after it's founder, Saint Marinus, that left the Croatian island of Rab to become a stonemason in Rimini. Following persecution for his Christian sermons, St.Marinus fled to Mount Titano where he built a small church and founded what is now San Marino.

SAN MARINO = SAINT MARINUS

Roman mythology states that Rome (or Roma as the Italians call it), was founded and named after Romulus. Romulus was one of the twins, his brother was Remus, that were raised by wolves in the area of the city.

The archaic name for the river Tiber is Rumen meaning "to flow" or "stream". Also the Greek word rhome meaning "strength" and finally the Etruscan word rum meaning "teat", This may refer either to the suckling wolf of Romulus or more likely the shape of the Palatine Hills nearby.

So, in conclusion, there is no firm theory as to the origin of Rome's name, but, as many towns and cities are named after the river they stand upon, the more likely meaning is.....

ROME = PLACE ON THE FLOWING STREAM

In 1929, the independant state of Vatican City came into existence, however the name traces it's roots back to pre Roman Empire times.

The Romans called the area Agus Vaticanus, a marshy area alongside the river that was deemed to be "unhealthy" due to many soldiers camped there becoming ill or even dying.

Although the Roman name's origin is in the Etruscan words, vates meaning "prophet" and cano meaning "to sing" .

VATICAN CITY = AREA OF THE SINGING PROPHET (Appropriate, I think)

Originally recorded as de Faduzes, the name, Vaduz, originates from the Romance languages. It evolved from the Rhaeto-Romance word auadutg meaning "aquaduct". Plain and simple this one!

VADUZ = AQUADUCT

The name Vienna is just an anglisized version of the city's native name of Wien. So the origin of the name is obviously derived from here.

Wien comes from the Old German word uuenia (wenia in modern writings) and meaning "forest stream"

Various other languages have different names for the city, all with conflicting origins. For example in Hungarian the city is called Becs refering to a fort.

However, for the purposes of this blog, I will stick to it's native name.

VIENNA = FOREST STREAM

There is some confusion over the origin of this city's name. It was only called Bratislava in 1919, prior to that it was called, in English, Pressburg. However its the current name we are concerned with.

The best theory I can find, although there is some doubt due to locations, is that Bratislava is derived from a medieval settlement called Brezalauspurc that literally means "Braslav's Castle". I like this idea, so.....

BRATISLAVA = BRASLAV'S CASTLE

Prague, also known as the "City of a Hundred Spires" is known as Praha in it's native language.

As such the name is derived from the old Slavic word prah meaning "ford" or "rapid" refering to a crossing of the Vitava river where the city was founded.

The English spelling of the name, Prague, is borrowed from French and during the 19th and early 20th centuries was pronounced as rhyming with "vague".

PRAGUE = FORD OF THE RIVER

Already there seems to be a pattern emerging. Many cities are named after the river they stand on or a crossing of said river. Whether this will carry on around the other continents of the world, we shall see. For Europe at least, that's two thirds done! Only 15 left in Europe to do, and we head into Eastern areas and the Balkans in the next blog. Probably finishing up in either Kiev or Valletta, both being excellent jumping off points for Asia and Africa respectively. If I'm honest Africa seems quite daunting, I don't know why. Maybe it's the amount of cities (56), or the strangeness of some of the names (Im looking at you Ouagadougou and Antananarivo). Who knows? I certainly don't.

Anyway, enough jibberjabber as Mr.T from the A-Team would say, thats it for this blog, see you in the next one soon !