Cities of Europe

32 to explore

• Watch City Amsterdam Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. It began as a fishing village beside a dam on the Amstel River, which gave the city its name. Today about 942,000 people live among its rings of canals, hundreds of bridges, houseboats and bicycles.
• Watch City Athens Athens is the capital of Greece and one of the oldest cities in the world. Above it rises the Acropolis, a rocky hill crowned by the marble Parthenon, built about 2,500 years ago. Ancient Athens was home to early democracy, great thinkers and theater.
• Watch City Barcelona Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, lies on the Mediterranean between mountains and the sea. It is famous for the buildings of the architect Antoni Gaudí, including the Sagrada Família, a giant church begun in 1882. About 1.7 million people live in the city (2025).
• Watch City Belgrade Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, stands where the Sava River flows into the Danube. Its name, Beograd, means "white city", probably because of the white limestone walls of its old fortress above the rivers. At the 2022 census, about 1.2 million people lived in the city itself and about 1.7 million in the wider City of Belgrade.
• Watch City Berlin Berlin, the capital of Germany, grew from two small trading towns on the Spree River. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall divided it. Today about 3.7 million people live there (2025), among lakes, forests, museums and the Brandenburg Gate.
• Watch City Brussels Brussels is the capital of Belgium. It began as a market where a road crossed the small Senne River, and its old name means "settlement in the marshes." Its Grand-Place, ringed by 17th-century guildhalls, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city is home to many offices of the European Union.
• Watch City Bucharest Bucharest, the capital of Romania, lies on a wide plain beside the Dâmbovița River. First written about in 1459, it became the capital of Walachia in 1659 and of Romania in 1862. Today it is a city of broad boulevards, a huge parliament palace, the Romanian Athenaeum concert hall and an open-air Village Museum.
• Watch City Budapest Budapest, the capital of Hungary, was made in 1873 by joining three towns on the Danube River: hilly Buda and old Óbuda on one bank and flat Pest on the other. About 1.7 million people live there (2026), with hot springs under the ground and the first underground railway built on the European mainland.
• Watch City Copenhagen Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, grew from a small harbor town into a royal city of palaces, canals and towers. Its name means "Merchants' Harbor." It has the Tivoli Gardens, opened in 1843, and the Little Mermaid statue, and about 673,000 people lived there in 2026.
• Watch City Dublin Dublin, the capital of Ireland, sits where the River Liffey flows into Dublin Bay. Vikings built a town here in the 800s, and its name comes from a "black pool" in the river. Today it is famous for its writers, music, Georgian squares and Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells.
• Watch City Hamburg Hamburg, in northern Germany, is the country's second-biggest city and one of Europe's largest ports. It grew from a castle built about 825 into a rich trading city on the Elbe River, with canals, a big lake and brick warehouses. About 1.9 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch City Helsinki Helsinki is the capital of Finland, on a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland. Founded in 1550 and made the capital in 1812, it has white stone buildings, a sea fortress on islands, and the world's most northern metro. About 694,000 people lived there at the end of 2025.
• Watch City Kyiv Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine, on the high west bank of the Dnieper River. More than 1,000 years ago it was the center of Kyivan Rus, the first East Slavic state, and its 11th-century St. Sophia's Cathedral and Pechersk Lavra monastery are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 2.95 million people lived there in 2022.
• Watch City Lisbon Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is the westernmost capital in mainland Europe, on the hills above the Tagus River near the Atlantic. By the 1400s it was the base for Portugal's voyages of exploration. Destroyed by an earthquake in 1755 and rebuilt, it is a city of steep streets, viewpoints and a famous tower at Belém. About 546,000 people lived there in 2021.
• Watch City London London, the capital of the United Kingdom, began as a Roman town almost 2,000 years ago. About 8.8 million people lived in Greater London in 2021. It has the Tower of London, Big Ben, Tower Bridge and the Tube, an underground railway that opened in 1863.
• Watch City Madrid Madrid, the capital of Spain, sits almost exactly in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula, high on a flat plateau. Once a small fortress, it became the royal capital in the 1500s. About 3.5 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch City Minsk Minsk, the capital of Belarus, lies on the Svislach River near the middle of the country. First written about in 1067, it was almost completely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt with wide avenues, parks and apartment blocks. About 2 million people lived there in 2026.
• Watch City Moscow Moscow, the capital of Russia, grew up on the Moscow River around a fortress called the Kremlin. About 13.3 million people lived there in 2025. Its rings of roads, snowy winters and palace-like subway stations make it like no other city.
• Watch City Munich Munich is the capital of Bavaria, a state in southern Germany, and the country's third-biggest city. It began in 1158 as a market by a bridge over the Isar River, and its name means "Home of the Monks." Today it is famous for its palaces, art museums, the huge Deutsches Museum and its autumn Oktoberfest.
• Watch City Oslo Oslo, the capital of Norway, lies at the head of the Oslo Fjord. It was founded about 1050, burned down in 1624 and was rebuilt under a new name, Christiania, before taking back the name Oslo in 1925. About 729,000 people lived there in 2026.
• Watch City Paris Paris is the capital of France. It grew from an island in the Seine River into a city of about 2.1 million people (2023), with the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Louvre and a subway that has run since 1900.
• Watch City Prague Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, lies on the Vltava River in the heart of Europe. With Prague Castle on its hill, the 14th-century Charles Bridge and so many church towers that it is called the 'City of a Hundred Spires', its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 1.4 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch City Rome Rome, the capital of Italy, grew from huts on a hill beside the Tiber River into the center of a huge ancient empire. About 2.7 million people live there today (2023), among ruins such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon.
• Watch City Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, in northwestern Russia, was founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703 on the islands of the Neva River delta. It was Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918 and is famous for the Winter Palace and Hermitage museum, its canals and bridges and its 'White Nights'. About 5.65 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch City Sofia Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, lies in a valley near the middle of the Balkans, at the foot of Vitosha Mountain. The Romans called it Serdica, and an old church of St. Sofia later gave the city its name. About 1.2 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch City Stockholm Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is built on islands and the mainland where Lake Mälaren meets an arm of the Baltic Sea. First mentioned as a town in 1252, it has a medieval Old Town, a royal palace, a 17th-century warship you can visit and subway stations full of art. About 985,000 people lived there in 2022.
• Watch City Tallinn Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, lies on a bay of the Gulf of Finland. Its walled Old Town, with towers, church spires and a town hall finished in 1404, is, says UNESCO, an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval trading town, and today the city is also known for its technology companies.
• Watch City Tirana Tirana is the capital and largest city of Albania, on a plain about 27 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea. Founded in the early 1600s, it became the capital in 1920. About 389,000 people lived in the city in 2023.
• Watch City Venice Venice, in northern Italy, is spread over 118 small islands in a shallow lagoon off the Adriatic Sea. There are no cars in the old city: people walk or travel by boat along its canals, past palaces and over about 400 bridges. High tides sometimes flood its squares, so giant gates now protect the lagoon.
• Watch City Vienna Vienna is the capital of Austria, on the Danube River. For centuries it was the home of emperors, and composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven lived and worked there. About 2 million people lived in the city at the start of 2026.
• Watch City Vilnius Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, grew where the Vilnia River flows into the Neris, below a castle on a hill. It was first written about in 1323, when it was already the capital of a huge state, and its old town of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 618,000 people lived there in 2026.
• Watch City Warsaw Warsaw is the capital of Poland, on the Vistula River. Much of the city was destroyed in World War II, and afterward its people rebuilt the Old Town so carefully that UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site. About 1.86 million people lived there in 2024.