The civilizations of Antiquity maintained the divine idea of ​​the city. The ideal city was the one that the gods built for men to live in. The reasons for settling in one place or another, to build their walls towards one side or the other, came from the advice of the wise; The ideas of health, defense or respect for the divinities marked this origin of the place in which the towns would develop. Religious reasons and sacred councils were shifting towards a social and economic and, above all, military logic. The interests of men begin to outweigh those of the gods. The city then becomes the symbol of human creation, it represents a culture, a community of people. The city is defined by the citizens. Aristotle, in Politics "Politics (Aristotle)"), defined the city as "a perfect and absolute set or communion of many towns or streets in a unity."

Beyond Western civilization, both in pre-Columbian civilizations and in those of the Far East, large-scale urban projects were carried out that presuppose the existence of urban theories or at least ideal conceptions of what the city and its functions should be like, especially as a result and reinforcement of political-religious power (Angkor Wat, Forbidden City, Tenochtitlán, Chichén Itzá, Chan Chan, etc.).

The decline of the classical Greco-Roman city led to ruralization, especially in the West; and to the replacement of classical urban planning by that of the Islamic city or that of the medieval European city.

The so-called utopia of Saint Gall") (ca. 819-826)[1]​ is an idealized plan of the rooms of a monastery, which responds not to the real monastery of Saint Gall, but to the concept of everything that would be necessary for a perfect monastic life; although using the logical precedents of some of the architectural and urban solutions tested by pre-Romanesque architecture, especially in the Carolingian palaces (such as the palace of Aachen and others, in turn inspired by that of Theodoric the Great, within the late Roman, Ostrogothic and Byzantine palace and ecclesiastical complex of Ravenna). The greatest example of a Benedictine monastery was Cluny.

In the 19th century, while Abd al-Rahman III undertook the construction of Medina Azahara (palatine city built next to the caliphal Córdoba "Córdoba (Spain)"), in Persia Al-Farabi defined the ideal city as an ordered society in which all its inhabitants help each other to obtain happiness, comparing it to a perfect and healthy body. Such a city has a primarily educational function, and is maintained, governed, and conceived, creating a harmony and unity as natural as that of the living body.

Already in the Late Middle Ages, bastides, sauvetés and castelnaus are different forms of villeneuves or ville nouvelle") ("villanuevas") of medieval France.

The conception of an "ideal city" (città ideale) was one of the topics of the Renaissance, especially in its architecture, from the Italy of the Quattrocento; although neither at that time nor in the Cinquecento were ambitious urban planning programs of planned design carried out, with the exception of the relatively modest complex of Pienza (Bernardo Rossellino, for Pope Pius II, 1458-1464), or the Roman piazza del Campidoglio (Michelangelo, for Pope Paul III, 1536). Yes, there was an opportunity to do so in the Spanish colonization of America (characterized by planned urban planning around the main square, heir to the main square or suburban square of Castilian urban planning); while grand perspectives were not realized in practice until Baroque urbanism").[2]​ In the centuries and large open spaces (flanked by aligned buildings receding towards the horizon line, closed by a prominent urban landmark, of classical forms, preferably a building with a centralized plan topped by a dome or equivalent roof) were restricted to the imagination and graphic designs of artists, stimulated by the discovery of the laws of conical perspective or regula Albertiana"), which defined Leon Battista Alberti after Brunelleschi's famous experiment in front of the Baptistery of Florence (1416).[3]​ For Leonardo da Vinci the width of the street will be proportional to the height of the houses.[4]​ Filarete, in his Trattato di Architettura (1464) designed Sforzinda, a utopian city in honor of Francisco Sforza, which was never built. Its starry wall prefigures the Italian layout of the fortifications that were built throughout Europe, culminating in Vauban's designs for Louis XIV. The Spanish Renaissance was influenced by Italian speculations about the ideal city and reflected them, with its own criteria, in the Cisnerian reforms of Alcalá de Henares, a model of Civitate Dei university,[5]​ and in the transformations of the cities of Úbeda and Baeza, experiences that were transferred to Spanish America and other places in the world.[6]​ As a distant repercussion in time of the speculations of the painters of the Quattrocento, the metaphysical painting of Giorgio de Chirico has been noted.[7]​.

In the middle of the century, simultaneously with the beginning of the English Industrial Revolution and the social and ideological movements that led to the liberal revolutions, several circumstantial events coincided that contributed to a change in the way of conceiving the idea of ​​the city. In the kingdom of Naples the ruins of Pompeii were discovered (1748), unleashing a true neoclassical fashion. In 1751 L'Encyclopedie began to be published, which defended the predominance of reason, civic values ​​and criticism of traditional institutions. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (an event that, on the other hand, had a great impact on the thought of the Enlightenment - Candide or Optimism, by Voltaire-) the current Baixa Pombalina and Praça do Comércio could be freely traced. Later architects and urban planners will have even more freedom, at least in their visionary projects.[9]​.

The civilizations of Antiquity maintained the divine idea of ​​the city. The ideal city was the one that the gods built for men to live in. The reasons for settling in one place or another, to build their walls towards one side or the other, came from the advice of the wise; The ideas of health, defense or respect for the divinities marked this origin of the place in which the towns would develop. Religious reasons and sacred councils were shifting towards a social and economic and, above all, military logic. The interests of men begin to outweigh those of the gods. The city then becomes the symbol of human creation, it represents a culture, a community of people. The city is defined by the citizens. Aristotle, in Politics "Politics (Aristotle)"), defined the city as "a perfect and absolute set or communion of many towns or streets in a unity."

Beyond Western civilization, both in pre-Columbian civilizations and in those of the Far East, large-scale urban projects were carried out that presuppose the existence of urban theories or at least ideal conceptions of what the city and its functions should be like, especially as a result and reinforcement of political-religious power (Angkor Wat, Forbidden City, Tenochtitlán, Chichén Itzá, Chan Chan, etc.).

The decline of the classical Greco-Roman city led to ruralization, especially in the West; and to the replacement of classical urban planning by that of the Islamic city or that of the medieval European city.

The so-called utopia of Saint Gall") (ca. 819-826)[1]​ is an idealized plan of the rooms of a monastery, which responds not to the real monastery of Saint Gall, but to the concept of everything that would be necessary for a perfect monastic life; although using the logical precedents of some of the architectural and urban solutions tested by pre-Romanesque architecture, especially in the Carolingian palaces (such as the palace of Aachen and others, in turn inspired by that of Theodoric the Great, within the late Roman, Ostrogothic and Byzantine palace and ecclesiastical complex of Ravenna). The greatest example of a Benedictine monastery was Cluny.

In the 19th century, while Abd al-Rahman III undertook the construction of Medina Azahara (palatine city built next to the caliphal Córdoba "Córdoba (Spain)"), in Persia Al-Farabi defined the ideal city as an ordered society in which all its inhabitants help each other to obtain happiness, comparing it to a perfect and healthy body. Such a city has a primarily educational function, and is maintained, governed, and conceived, creating a harmony and unity as natural as that of the living body.

Already in the Late Middle Ages, bastides, sauvetés and castelnaus are different forms of villeneuves or ville nouvelle") ("villanuevas") of medieval France.

The conception of an "ideal city" (città ideale) was one of the topics of the Renaissance, especially in its architecture, from the Italy of the Quattrocento; although neither at that time nor in the Cinquecento were ambitious urban planning programs of planned design carried out, with the exception of the relatively modest complex of Pienza (Bernardo Rossellino, for Pope Pius II, 1458-1464), or the Roman piazza del Campidoglio (Michelangelo, for Pope Paul III, 1536). Yes, there was an opportunity to do so in the Spanish colonization of America (characterized by planned urban planning around the main square, heir to the main square or suburban square of Castilian urban planning); while grand perspectives were not realized in practice until Baroque urbanism").[2]​ In the centuries and large open spaces (flanked by aligned buildings receding towards the horizon line, closed by a prominent urban landmark, of classical forms, preferably a building with a centralized plan topped by a dome or equivalent roof) were restricted to the imagination and graphic designs of artists, stimulated by the discovery of the laws of conical perspective or regula Albertiana"), which defined Leon Battista Alberti after Brunelleschi's famous experiment in front of the Baptistery of Florence (1416).[3]​ For Leonardo da Vinci the width of the street will be proportional to the height of the houses.[4]​ Filarete, in his Trattato di Architettura (1464) designed Sforzinda, a utopian city in honor of Francisco Sforza, which was never built. Its starry wall prefigures the Italian layout of the fortifications that were built throughout Europe, culminating in Vauban's designs for Louis XIV. The Spanish Renaissance was influenced by Italian speculations about the ideal city and reflected them, with its own criteria, in the Cisnerian reforms of Alcalá de Henares, a model of Civitate Dei university,[5]​ and in the transformations of the cities of Úbeda and Baeza, experiences that were transferred to Spanish America and other places in the world.[6]​ As a distant repercussion in time of the speculations of the painters of the Quattrocento, the metaphysical painting of Giorgio de Chirico has been noted.[7]​.

In the middle of the century, simultaneously with the beginning of the English Industrial Revolution and the social and ideological movements that led to the liberal revolutions, several circumstantial events coincided that contributed to a change in the way of conceiving the idea of ​​the city. In the kingdom of Naples the ruins of Pompeii were discovered (1748), unleashing a true neoclassical fashion. In 1751 L'Encyclopedie began to be published, which defended the predominance of reason, civic values ​​and criticism of traditional institutions. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (an event that, on the other hand, had a great impact on the thought of the Enlightenment - Candide or Optimism, by Voltaire-) the current Baixa Pombalina and Praça do Comércio could be freely traced. Later architects and urban planners will have even more freedom, at least in their visionary projects.[9]​.