Two friends of Ambrose Merton have met the “built on seven hills” claim while travelling in Europe. Marion Bowman writes that, when lecturing in Bergen in September, she was told by three different people that Bergen is built on seven hills. David Cornwell found the same being said about Lisbon.
Delgates at the Fourteenth International Conference on Contemporary Legend, held at the University of Bath in late July, 1996, dined out one night at the George pub, Bathampton. Returning by minibus after the meal, a comment was made on how hills Bath was. The driver replied that Bath, like Rhodes, was built on seven hills.
Bath is already on our list of torns “built on seven hills” (see, for exaple Letters 5:13) but it is nice to have evidence that the idea isstill in common currency. “Rhodes” is more puzzling. Was it a slip for “Rome”?
In Dear Mr Thoms 25, 33 and 36, we noted the following cities are supposedly built on seven hills: Aberdeen, Bath, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lisbon, Plovdiv and Sheffield. Now we can add Bamberg in Bavaria. In “The Heart of Germany”, Glasgow Evening Times, Mark Thornton writes “Like Rome, Bamberg is built on seven hills crowned with churches”.
In DMT 25 and 33, we noted that a number of cases where towns were said, like Rome, to be built on seven hills. One of the was Aberdeen, Scotland, for which we can now provide a recent text. In 1994, the city of Aberdeen has been commemorating the two hundred anniversary of thelaying out of its main street, Union Street. A publicity brochure, News 200, carries the following passage:
“St Katherine’s Hill is variously claimed as one of the three hills of Aberdeen (for the three towers on the City Arms) and the seven hills of the city making Aberdeen the equivalent of Rome”.
To Aberdeen, Bath, Glasgow, Lisbon , Plovdiv and Sheffield can be added Edinburgh. The AA Touring Guide to Britain (1979), pp 218-219 has as Tour 100, “The City on Seven Hills”: “Seven hilltops guarded by a massive castle carry Edinburgh, the Athens of the North”.
After the comparison with Athens, the authors presumably thought it better not to add a comparison with Rome. However, they do add something which casts some doubt on the “seven hills” image:
“Until 200 years ago the great centre of culture and learning was little more than a cluster of houses along the Royal Mile, a cobbled slope that follows a windy ridge from Castle Hill to the Palace of Holyrood.”
IN DMT 25, it was noted that a number of towns are said, like Rome, to be built on seven hills: Aberdeen, Glasgow, Sheffield and Plovdiv (Bulgaria). To the can be added:
Bath: Marion Bowman informs us that she became aware of this claim when a Japanese student asked for help in identifying the seven hills mentioned in the guide book. Marion suggests that it would be more accurate to describe Bath as built in a hollow.
Lisbon: A travel guide in The Observer newspaper Life section, 2 January 1884, pp 24-28, states that “Lisbon not only claims the statutory seven hills, but covers them with patterned and lumpy cobbles”. Reading this prompted me to check a copy of the Michelin tourist guide Portugal (Fifth Edition, Harrow, 1989) . There, on page 83, one finds that Lisbon is said to be built on seven low hills”.
What do Sheffield, England, and Plovdiv, Bulgaria have in common? Consider the following: “Legend has it that Sheffield is built on seven hills…” (Richard Burns, “Sheffield the city of craft and graft”, The Guardian, 16 October 1991, page 21).
This caught my eye, not just because of the word “legend” but because I recalled being told that Aberdeen was built on seven hills. David Cornwell informs me that he has been told the same of Glasgow, Browsing in the Dictionnaire Universel des Noms Propres (Paris: Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1987), I discovered that Plovdiv was described as “construite sur sept collines”.
One of the problems with such a claim is that, if a town is built in a hilly area, and if it expands over the years as most towns presumably do, then many towns at some stage may be said to be built on seven hills. The reason for the claim is presumably to equate the town concerned with Rome, but how valid is the claim for Rome itself.
I would be interested to hear of other cases where towns have this claim made for them.