Chester: Science has picked out the medieval market city as the most beautiful in the world, according to golden ratio rules. Photo / Mitch Rosen, Unsplash
Chester in England has been crowned the "most beautiful city" on earth.
The result of an in-depth study of images of the world's most attractive cities has sought to find the "most beautiful", researchers pieced together a standard beauty score for buildings.
After scanning 2500 images of buildings and skylines for alignment with the 'golden ratio' the report landed on a tiny market city in the North West of England.
Not Rome, not Paris, but the provincial settlement of under 80,000 people.
And this was all "according to science", says Online Mortgage Advisor.
"The golden ratio (1:1.618) reflects a set of proportions that have intrigued and been studied by mathematicians for millennia," said the report.
The golden ratio has been described as the "beauty formula" and mathematical symmetry. It's found in paintings, music and even the natural world.
And now it has been found in Chester.
The charming town on the River Dee was found to be 0.4 per cent more in alignment with the golden ratio than Venice - the second most beautiful city according to the study.
It was given a beauty score of 83.7, for the highest percentage of buildings aligned to please the eye.
Other aesthetically appealing cities outlined in the study were London in third with 83 per cent, Belfast with 82.9 per cent and Rome whose timeless beauty is a pleasing 82 per cent in alignment with the golden ratio.
New York was the top scoring city in the US with a ratio of 77.7 in alignment with golden ratio beauty. The 'beauty scores' were calculated by measuring buildings and finding the proportion of the longest and shortest lengths of its dimensions.
"Using a famous mathematical concept, we analysed thousands of buildings worldwide to find out," said the mortgage consultant.
Local Tourism Board VisitCheshire.com was understandably thrilled to be in the same beauty bracket as Venice and Paris.
"The ancient city is a truly breathtaking experience," said the provincial tourism marketing bureau, which praised the city's Roman Amphitheatre and Medieval stone carvings.
The study sample was generated from randomly selected buildings using Google Street View. While the data set was not published it was pointed out that the UK firm analysed a lot more local cities, which might have affected rankings. The Derby-based company was conveniently only 90km away from Cheshire versus Venice.
Perhaps beauty lies less in the golden ratio and more in the eye of the beholder, but there are some attractive sights in the British Isles.
London's St Paul's Cathedral was recently named the most beautiful building in the world, using the same golden-ratio principle.
The study by Roofing Megastore found the cathedral was 72.28 per cent in alignment with the golden radio, followed by Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.
1. Chester, UK - 83.7 per cent alignment to the golden ratio
2. Venice, Italy - 83.3%
3. London, UK - 83%
4. Belfast, UK - 82.9%
5. Rome, Italy - 82%
6. Barcelona, Spain - 81.9%
7. Liverpool, UK - 81%
8. Durham, UK - 80.5%
9. Bristol, UK - 80%
10. Oxford, UK - 79.7%
Source: onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk
1. St. Paul's Cathedral (England, built in 1710) - 72.28 per cent alignment to the golden ratio
2. Marina Bay Sands resort (Singapore, 2010) - 70.88%
3. Westminster Abbey (England, 1269) - 70.50%
4. Osaka Castle (Japan, 1583) - 70.38%
5. St. Basil's Cathedral (Russia, 1561) - 69.10%
6. Casa Mila (Spain, 1912) - 68.64%
7. Florence Cathedral (Italy, 1436) - 67.52%
8. Taj Mahal (India, 1653) - 67.45%
9. Dancing House (Czech Republic, 1996) - 66.87%
10. Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany, 1886) - 63.10%
Source: roofingmegastore.co.uk
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