The beautiful little English city named the prettiest in the whole world
The city beat Florence, Venice and other world-renowned beauties to the top spot.
Chester: Ariel views show historic English city
A small English city home to five Greggs bakeries has triumphed over iconic destinations such as Venice, Paris, and Florence to be lauded as the most desirable city on the globe.
Chester, once a bustling Roman fort, took the crown based on research utilising the "golden ratio" ancient principles applied to judge the aesthetic splendour of its architecture.
Notwithstanding competition from landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and Michelangelo's famed David sculpture, the charming city with fewer than 80,000 residents emerged victorious.
Founded in 79AD, Chester boasts an exceptional historical pedigree. Visitors can still walk the Ancient Roman walls, which were later modified during the Norman conquest.
The city is renowned for its distinctive black and white Victorian buildings, fashioned in a nostalgic Jacobean half-timbered style.
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And it seems Chester’s historic architecture swung the vote for the researchers at Online Mortgage Advisor.
According to TimeOut the study used Google Street View to measure hundreds of streets and more than 2,400 buildings from cities around the world.
Chester's score averaged at a staggering 83.7 percent, narrowly edging out the scenic canals of Venice, which scored 83.3 percent.
A significant win for British architecture, with London snatching the third place and Belfast securing fourth, while the Italian capital Rome rounded out the top five.
Barcelona tops the charts for Spain's architectural splendour, closely followed by Prague, while New York wins the crown in the USA.
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In contrast, Manchester scores least favourably in the UK's list of architectural wonders, alongside Beijing, which ranks at the bottom globally.
The website of Online Mortgage Advisor elaborates on the golden ratio (1:1.618), describing it as "reflects a set of proportions that have intrigued and been studied by mathematicians for millennia".
This ratio, not limited to monumental designs, is said to present itself in myriad forms including art masterpieces, literature, symphonies, national emblems and, though somewhat controversially, in natural phenomena.
Iconic edifices such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon are reputed to embody this perfect proportion in their design.
