Historic city centers hold back suburban sprawl—new study shows how cultural heritage shapes urban form

Why do some European cities remain compact and vibrant, while others have hollowed out under the weight of suburbanization? A new paper by our researcher Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal and Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) reveals a key factor: historic urban amenities.

Using geolocated data on over 2,600 historic buildings from the Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance-Baroque periods across 579 European cities, the authors test whether cultural heritage influences where people choose to live. Their theoretical model extends the standard urban framework by incorporating exogenous amenities—like ancient monuments and historic architecture—as a central force shaping the internal structure of cities.

The results are clear: cities with significant historic amenities in their centers tend to be more centralized, with steeper population density gradients and more resistance to suburbanization—even when highways improve suburban access. Specifically, the presence of these historic landmarks is associated with:

• a 3.7 percentage point higher population share in city centers,
• a steeper decline in density moving away from the center,
• and a smaller loss of central population after highway expansions (2 points less than cities without historic amenities).

These effects are stronger when the quantity and quality of historic buildings increase. Importantly, the study controls for other factors like natural amenities, socioeconomic variables, and modern infrastructure.

The research offers new insights into how historical legacy continues to shape contemporary urban life—and suggests that cultural preservation may have unintended benefits for urban sustainability. However, the authors also point out that this centralization may come at a cost: potential residential segregation between historic cores and peripheral suburbs.

Discover more about the UB School of Economics’ research! Explore the full list of our researchers and their latest research here.

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