Montreal is the most populous municipality in the province of Quebec and the second-most populous in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or “City of Mary”, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal. The city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. Montreal had a population of 1.7 million. Montreal’s metropolitan area had a population of 4.1 million and a population of 2 million in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city, 60.5% of Montrealers speak French at home, 21.2% speak English and 19.8% speak neither. Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris. read more…
Graz is the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna and the capital of the federal state of Styria. On 1 April 2010 it had a population of 292,000. Graz has a long tradition as a student city: its six universities have more than 44,000 students. Its “Old Town” is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe. Graz is situated on the Mur River in the southeast of Austria. It is about 200 km (120 mi) southwest of Vienna. The nearest larger urban center is Maribor in Slovenia which is about 50 km (31 mi) away. Styria is a green and heavily forested area. read more…
The Creative Cities Network is a project under the patronage of UNESCO. With the aim of celebrating and maintaining cultural diversity, the alliance formed by member cities share their experiences in promoting the local heritage, as well as discuss plans on how to cope with the influx of globalization. The Creative Cities Network aims to find and enrich a member city’s cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism. read more…
