It’s surprising to hear that neither Tokyo, Paris nor Florence was named the most beautiful city in the world.
Instead, this place is reserved for one small city in the northwest of the UK. This city has one Aldi, four Greggs, and around 80,000 residents.
And, the perfect buildings.
Named Chester, this city has the highest percentage of buildings that align with the phenomenon known as the golden ratio.
This ratio is a ratio of proportions considered a barometer of beauty.
The Most Eye-Catching Cities by Online Mortgage Advisor
A team of researchers from Online Mortgage Advisor ranked the most eye-catching cities through Google Street View scans.
They compared front-facing photos of hundreds of streets and checked out more than 24,000 buildings from cities all over the world.
They used the corners of every building to calculate the proportions between the shortest and longest sides and then compared their findings to the golden ratio.
Chester, the small UK city, scored 83.7 percent. It beat Venice with 83.3 percent, London with 83 percent, Belfast with 82.9 percent, and Rome with 82 percent.
What Is the Golden Ratio Standard?
This ratio (1:1.618) is believed to be a reflection of natural aesthetic perfection.
It’s found in Le Corbusier’s buildings and in the art of Leonardo da Vinci. It also occurs in the human body and even in the DNA.
Moreover, it’s also present in shells, hurricanes, flowers, and pinecones. This set of proportions has long been an intrigue for mathematicians.
Artists in the last few centuries have included this ratio into their work, considering it a gold standard for aesthetic perfection.
Chester was found to be the closest to the golden ratio as it has the most beautiful buildings in the UK.
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