You see it occasionally in fiction: the fortress in the frozen north, or the monastery on a mountain top (it’s pretty much guaranteed that anyone who grew up there is a badass), but are there real places like that? I’m especially interested if there are any pre-industrial cities that never thaw (Siberia, maybe?), and especially if they’re more than just military outposts or the like. Residential, in other words, such that people grow up there.
Other than Detroit?
Tromso, Norway?
Quote; Wikipedia
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In reality, cities sprung up because there was some type of advantage offered, such as closeness to a port or other transportation, natural resources, fertile soil, etc… Military garrison towns/forts/castles were established because they were deemed necessary for defense. If there is nothing to defend that is worth the cost of maintaining the outpost, there would be no need for a fort and a politician or military officer who established one in an undefendable or worthless wilderness would be questioned as to his qualifications.
Trondheim? Settled in 997 and continuously occupied since then. It’s not permanently frozen, but it is a historic producer of badasses.
It’s pretty small by modern city standards though (~175,000 people).
Lhasa would probably be the stereotypical snow-shrouded city dominated by a gigantic monastery at the top of the hill. Although despite the high elevation, it’s climate is actually pretty moderate.
Nizhny Novgorod is my entry.
When people give you the nickname Thundershield, you know you’ve made an impression.
Trondheim isn’t even close to permanently frozen, though. Some years the summers are warm and pleasant. Other years they are best described as “Tuesday, and a couple of hours Wednesday morning”. For that matter Tromsø is also much warmer than you might predict, with a climate that isn’t that much colder than Trondheim.
Check out the Winter Cities organization. They not only study what differences are needed in cities that are cold and snowy but have chapters probably in all the cities mentioned here. They do conferences for Mayors of winter cities annually. This year’s conference was in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
How about Namche Bazaar, the 11,000-ft-above-sea-level “capital” of the Sherpas?
I am surprised no-one has mentioned Arkhangelsk. It is a little further south than Tromso, I think (Tromso was my original thought), but larger, probably colder, and (noting the OP’s mention of a fortress), more military.
If you needed the biggest AND oldest AND coldest to be the same you’d be out of luck. But, if you asked for the oldest and lowest city, you’d get the same answer (depending on the definition of “city” and “oldest” though.)
They held a conference in Anchorage one year; gave the city failing grades for public transportation and sidewalk clearing, as I recall.
Also Reykjavik, of course, but that is slightly south of Archangelsk, and probably a good deal warmer.
I once heard a talk from a church group that went to Siberia - they brought over a ton of used clothing - I remember they went in summer, don’t know the region, but it was swelteringly hot!
Jericho?
Yep.
How about that ancient city at “The Mountains of Madness”?
Of course, the inhabitants were all in suspended animation.
I was in Namche in the middle of winter (January-February) for a few days and it was actually quite warm (50’s F., T-shirt and shorts) from around 10am to 2pm. Nights were cold dropping into the teens. The only snow was on the mountain peaks surrounding it.
I;m sure there are some really cold days there, but my stop on the way to Everest Base Camp and my stop heading back to Kathmandu both were relatively warm and sunny days.