The end of known lands (for someone…) was in these cities. When Julius Caesar arrived at Portus Magnus Artabrorum (Coruña) in the first century BC, other romans settled Gesocribate (Brest) in the third century, or Nikolai Muraviov first arrived in present-day Vladivostok in 1859, there was surely a certain idea of being far, far way… even today these cities are good natural harbors at the end of main communication lines.

These are hilly cities, with interesting landscapes of complex bays, sparkled with beaches, docks and diverse military compounds; Ferrol, Ile Longue and the Vladivsotok Arsenal are key bases for the navies of the three countries.

In Vladivostok the border condition is a part of its caracther, few kilometers away from the Chinese and Korean borders. Until the Aigun treaty and the arrival of Muraviov just some 150 years ago, the Russian Maritime Provinces were a sparsely populated area under the Chinese orbit.

In Brest the destruction of the city during WWII led to a postwar reconstruction that included the destruction of the city walls and extensive grading and eathworks that altered the traditional relation of the cityscape with the sea.

In La Coruña the urban duality with Ferrol, at the other end of the rias altas arc, configures a long metropolitan area, which is more complex in territorial terms than the other two cases, in which the central city is more relevant.