Back to Postscript 4 - the Danubian Church

Postscript 5 - A Guide to Dan�bikt M�skt, the capitol of Upper Danubia, and Rika Chorna, the largest provincial capitol

During September 2010 I decided to change the map of Danube City to make it look more like a real city and to add some extra details and places.  I created the original map in 2006 shortly after completing Maragana Girl.  However, since 2006 I wrote two additional novels that mention places not included in the original Danube City map. 


Dan�bikt M�skt

Places in downtown Danube City mentioned in Maragana Girl, The Freshman, and The Courier. Click on the map for a larger image.

1. Central Plaza: Police Station, Cathedral, Courthouse, and Danubian Parliament
2. Temple of the Ancients
3. Spot where Kim was arrested
4. Danube City Railroad station and trolley connection
5. Socrates Club
6. Music Store
7. Victor Dukov's business
8. Ending point for the Day of the Dead march
9. King Vladik's castle
10. King Vladik square, war memorial, chapel, and visitor center
11. River View hotel, the main hotel for central Danube City
12. Danube City National University
13. City vegetable market
14. Victor Dukov's house
15. Prime Minister's residence and gardens
16. Temple and public park for the University District
17. Spokesman Alexi Havlakt's house
18. Trolley line to Northeast District and Vladim Dukov's house
19. Public beach
20. Old City Gate
21. Trolley line to the international airport and Northeast District
22. Old City wall
23. Docks and warehouse zone
24. Rika Chorna River and boat docks
25. East Danube River
 

Danube City is not only Upper Danubia�s largest and oldest city, but also the nation�s capitol and the only river port accessible to barge traffic. There are three major rail lines exiting the city: to the northern and southern borders and a third line linking Danube City to the eastern regional center Rika Chorna. There are several branch lines connecting the capitol to the western provincial capitols, but to go to any of the eastern provinces by rail it is necessary to first travel to Rika Chorna.

There are five main districts in Danube City, which in turn are divided into neighborhoods. These include: the Old Walled City, the Old Business District, the Rika Chorna District, the University District, and the Northeast District.

Places in the outer districts of Danube City mentioned in the three novels. Click on the map for a larger image.

1. Danube City collar zone limit
2. Spokesman Vladim Dukov's house
3. Anyia Dukov's school, also the school where Maria Elena Rodriguez stayed overnight during the storm
4. The school where Eloisa and her friends were punished
5. Sergekt's house
6. Socrates Club, gym, and trolley transfer station
7. Railroad station and new business district
8. King Vladik International Airport
9. Police and military academy and training grounds
10. Sergekt's family garden
11. Place in the forest where Sergekt spanked Kim
12. Highway and railroad going south
13. Highway and railroad line going north
14. National University, University District, and Victor Dukov's house
15. Road to eastern provinces
16. Railroad line to eastern provinces
17. Temple of the Ancients and holy ground
18. River port and docks
19. Spokesman Alexi Havlakt's house
20. East Danube River and mouth of Rika Chorna River
21. Road east to the Royal Residence (see enlarged map)
22. Camp site for the annual Day of the Dead march (see enlarged map)

(note: the only trolley lines shown on this map are main routes frequently used by my characters. Danube City has far more trolley lines than what is depicted here, but I didn't want to make the map too complicated.)

The Old Walled City is considered one of the most attractive and best-preserved historical sites in Europe. The city itself has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years and is the oldest known settlement in Upper Danubia. There are two buildings that date back that far: a section of the Temple of the Ancients and a nearby two-room house used to store religious artifacts. Several other buildings in the Old Walled City date back to the Middle Ages, including the National Cathedral, King Vladik�s Castle, and a couple of stone government buildings.

Most of the buildings contained in the Old Walled City do not date back to the Middle Ages, however. Prior to 1755 nearly all of the buildings in the capitol were made out of wood and tightly crammed into very narrow streets. At the end of the summer that year a huge fire swept through the Old Walled City and destroyed every building not made out of stone. The Grand Duke took advantage of the opportunity to rebuild a much safer and more attractive capitol. He hired architects from Vienna to help design new government buildings and city planners to lay out new streets in a grid pattern. The new plan centered around a large open plaza at the entrance of the National Cathedral and stone government buildings around the plaza. The plan included a new Parliament building and a new courthouse, along with other ministries and office buildings on the blocks surrounding the Central Plaza. The new capitol was largely completed by 1790, but as a result of the plan, most of the city�s residents rebuilt their houses outside the Old City Wall.

The Old Business District was the Danubian financial and business district during the 19th Century. Most of the architecture dates from the 1800�s, although some of the buildings next to the Old City Wall date back to the 1600�s. While Danubians are most proud of the 18th Century Danubian-Baroque buildings in the Old Walled City, many tourists find the Old Business District more interesting because of its wide variety of architecture that spans a 400-year period. Among the older buildings of the Old Business District is the Socrates Club Complex, which started out as a 17th Century armory and military hospital.

The University District is a residential district that was built up around the National University during the early 20th Century. It is considered the most attractive residential section of Danube City because of its tree-lined streets and solid brick houses.

The Rika Chorna District comprises the entire area south of the Rika Chorna River. The southern district is the city�s industrial area and contains the main railroad station. The nation�s linen factories are located there, as are most of its food-processing plants. The southern district also contains the city�s only modern high-rise buildings, because high-rises are prohibited in the other districts. The Rika Chorna District is strictly a business and work area; almost no one actually lives there. Express trolleys transport workers back and forth between their homes in the Northeast District and their jobs in the Rika Chorna District. During the summer most workers commute by bicycle.

The Northeast District is where most of the residents live. The majority of Danubians own row houses that include a small front and back yard. Some wealthier professionals such as Vladim Dukov have detached houses close to the edge of town. Workers in the government ministries tend to live in fashionable �flats� (apartment-style condominiums) in remodeled older buildings close to the Old Business District.

City planning has influenced Danube City�s growth since 1755. Blocks of row houses in the Northeast District alternate with parks, temples, schools, and communal gardens. There are swaths of rich soil where the gardens are located, and stretches of rocky soil where the houses are located. The Danubian government is very concerned about the loss of farmland and a drop in the country�s agricultural production, so as a rule any patches of rich soil are protected from development, even if located near an urban area.

Because privately owned cars have been prohibited since 1958, Danube City has not grown up around the need to accommodate large numbers of vehicles. There are no parking lots other than small ones next to police stations. Streets, even in newer areas, tend to be narrow and set up exclusively for trolleys and bicycles. Any business deliveries by truck or van must be made in the middle of the night when the trolleys are not running.

The only public parking spaces in the entire city are restricted to the Rika Chorna District. All vehicles, even taxis and delivery vans owned by small businesses, must be stored in government-controlled motor-pools. The motor-pools have their own mechanics who are government employees, and valets to bring out vehicles to their owners when they are needed. Vehicle owners pay special taxes to support the motor-pool service, but are guaranteed that, in exchange for the tax, their vehicles will be kept in good operating condition.
 

Rika Chorna

The Rika Chorna Province is geographically the largest province in Danubia, encompassing the city, the reservoir, the river's source, and the land in between. From 1512 until the late 1700�s all of eastern Danubia was a single province, with political power concentrated in Rika Chorna. In 1780 the Grand Duke forced the Rika Chorna council of elders to allow several smaller towns in the east to create their own provincial governments that would answer directly to Danube City.

The people of Rika Chorna and the lands to the east do not particularly care for the people of Danube City and the western provinces, and haven't since the 1500's. In the east there is an underlying resentment stemming from the abandonment of southern Danubia in 1502 and the forced resettlement of 1512. The two halves of Danubia each view themselves as the "real" Danubia and there is an eastern and western accent in Danubian speech. The regional resentment worsened after the forest fires in "Maragana Girl". One of Dukov's accomplishments as Prime Minister was to reconcile with the eastern provinces.

The only densely populated section of Rika Chorna province is the area around the city and near a smaller town named Novo Sumi Ris. Each province has its own capital, but what makes Rika Chorna the most important town in the east is the fact it is the only place through which commercial traffic can pass between the two halves of the country. The area to the west of Rika Chorna and around the reservoir is rugged and heavily wooded, but to the east and southeast of the town there are flat lands and a lot of agriculture. A range of forested hills separates Rika Chorna from the headwaters of the river that feeds the reservoir and flows west. Several service roads connect Rika Chorna and the reservoir. The reservoir is an important tourism spot, so apart from agriculture, canning, textiles, and produce-shipping, tourism services are an important activity in Rika Chorna. To the north of Rika Chorna there are several mines that produce silver and copper, which are processed in the city and converted to finely-crafted serving utensils and dishes.

The Rika Chorna Reservoir did not exist until 1934, the year the dam was completed. Prior to 1934 there was a large swamp that was uninhabitable through which the Rika Chorna River flowed. The region was called Black River as a result of the swamp, and the town took on the same name because the settlers in the east wanted to lay claim to the headwaters of the river.

The dam project to replace the swamp was the largest public works project ever undertaken in Danubia. The dam was started in 1928, but the Danubian government and residents living along the Rika Chorna River had wanted to �do something� about the swamp for many years. During the 1800�s there were several efforts to drain the swamp and convert it to farmland, but those efforts failed. The idea of going in the other direction and flooding the swamp with an artificial lake received more serious consideration after 1919, resulting in the dam project nine years later. The lake is Danubia�s �inland sea� and popular with tourists, but its most important functions are to provide clean drinking water and electrical generation for most of Danubia.

Rika Chorna is about half the size of Danube City and is different from the national capitol in layout and architecture. Only a small river runs through the town, not a major one like the East Danube River or the Rika Chorna River that pass through Danube City. The eastern provincial center is not as well planned as Danube City and the streets were put in one-by-one as the urban area grew instead of being systematically laid out. Architecture ranges from 16th Century to 20th Century and buildings of different ages stand next to each other. There is no old city wall like the one in Danube City. There is some sense of historic preservation, but not nearly to the extent there is in Danube City. The railroad in Rika Chorna runs right through downtown, something that the inhabitants of Danube City would not even think of allowing. Still, Rika Chorna is very much a Danubian City, clean and quiet with parks, trolleys, and private houses. The inserted map includes points of interest in the city:

1. Police station and building housing the Spokespersons� offices
2. Courthouse
3. Ministry of Public Works, where criminals have to report for any special projects
4. Rika Chorna branch of the Socrates Club
5. Governor�s palace
6. Cathedral of Rika Chorna, modeled after the one in Sumy Ris
7. Train Station
8. Market
9. Textile factory (other plants in the industrial zone include canning factories and food processing)
10. Road to the university

There are more than two thousand collared criminals serving sentences in Rika Chorna. The Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Natural Resources frequently need criminals for public works projects, so criminals in Rika Chorna are constantly on-call for whatever need arises. Criminals assigned to live in Rika Chorna perform more physical labor than the ones assigned to Danube City and their lives are disrupted a lot more. Thus, the criminals of Rika Chorna resent the �easy� lives of the criminals in Danube City, and the criminals of Danube City dread the possibility of being re-assigned to Rika Chorna.


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