Avenues as a cultural asset
“Lovers hurry down the avenues, embracing, shivering, not from cold, but with desire, […]” With these lines, the contemporary (born in 1981) poet Marjana Gaponenko calls our attention to something very precious: avenues are not just thoroughfares, but also carry us along them – with all our experiences, feelings and moods. In their diverse manifestations, avenues characterise the landscapes where we grow up. The sight of them brings back memories and makes us feel at home. This makes tree-lined avenues cultural assets that have already inspired many.
Avenues as a European cultural asset
Avenues were already laid down in ancient times: the “Via Appia” was the first stone-paved through road in Europe. Built by the Romans in 313 BC, it stretches 539 kilometres, from Rome to Brindisi. Accompanied by sidewalks, shade-giving pine trees and tombs, it is regarded as the “Queen of the Roads” even today due to its beauty.
Abundance of avenues in cities
Many European cities boast famous tree-lined boulevards that promote these places – for example, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Prater-Hauptallee in Vienna, the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, and Unter den Linden in Berlin. The street “Unter den Linden” was the first tree-lined avenue in Brandenburg. Most of these avenues were laid several hundred years ago and often linked castles with parks or the open countryside. Originally they often featured multiple rows of trees and were an imposing sight.
Avenues in culture and literature
Tree-lined avenues are often compared to a living piece of architecture. Their organically grown form make such avenues especially appealing: densely planted, they look like a green wall when seen from the outside. Seen from the inside, however, the leaf canopy is arched, giving rise to the so-called “dome effect”. When planting distances are greater, the closed look is broken up by the effect of a rhythmic play of light and shadow. These effects are of course also reflected in literature. Theodor Fontane wrote: “…the symmetry of the tree-lined lanes lets me see the countryside as if through a window, giving me a feeling of security.” Poets often found their own moods reflected in the seasonal changes of avenues. Rainer Maria Rilke, for whom the autumnal avenue was a symbol of loneliness in his poem “Autumn Day”, wrote: “Whoever has no house now, will no longer build one. Whoever is alone now, will stay so for a long time to come, will keep watch, read, write long letters and wander up and down the alleys, restlessly, among the blowing leaves.”
Avenues in painting, sculpture and music
Avenues have also long been a popular painting motif: Vincent van Gogh’s “Poplar Avenue in Autumn” (Nuenen 1884) or in Edvard Munch’s paintings “New Snow in the Avenue” (Oslo 1906) and “The murderer in the Lane” (Oslo 1919).
The idea of wrapping rows of trees, streets or lanes comes from Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and could be viewed in a park in Riehen, Switzerland in 1998.
In music, avenues become inner-city locations – “avenues” (from the Latin advenire, i.e. “to lead to” buildings or streets). They are usually places of atmospheric experiences or passionate encounters. Bob Dylan sings: “I heard her say over my shoulder, ‚We‘ll meet again someday on the avenue’, tangled up in blue”, while in “Lonely Avenue” Ray Charles complains: “I live on a lonely avenue, my little girl wouldn‘t say, ‚I do‘…”