Europe

133 to explore · page 3 of 3

• Watch Landmark Museo del Prado The Museo del Prado in Madrid opened in 1819 to show the paintings collected by Spain's kings and queens. Its stone building was first planned as a science museum. Today it holds about 8,600 paintings, including the world's most complete collections of the Spanish painters El Greco, Velázquez and Goya.
• Watch Landmark Mycenae Mycenae, in southern Greece, was the richest and most important palace city of Bronze Age Greece, more than 3,000 years ago. Its people built huge stone walls, a palace, a gate topped with two carved lions and great round tombs. Archaeologists have found gold masks, cups and jewelry there, and clay tablets with an early form of Greek writing.
• Watch Landmark Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle stands on a rocky ridge in Bavaria, Germany. King Ludwig II had it built from 1869 as a private retreat in the style of a medieval knights' castle, but with the newest technology inside. It opened to visitors in 1886, and in 2025 about 1.1 million people came.
• Watch Country North Macedonia North Macedonia is a small, landlocked country in the Balkans of southeastern Europe. It is mostly mountains, the Vardar River runs through its middle, Lake Ohrid has existed for millions of years, and about 1.8 million people lived there in 2023.
• Watch Landmark Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris is the cathedral of Paris, a Catholic church begun in 1163 on an island in the Seine River. Its towers are 68 meters tall. In 2019 a fire destroyed most of its roof and its spire, and after five years of work it reopened in December 2024.
• Watch Landmark Olympia Olympia, in a green valley in southern Greece, was a great religious sanctuary of the ancient Greeks and the home of the ancient Olympic Games. The Games were held there every four years from 776 BCE to 393 CE. Today you can walk among the ruins of its temples, its stadium and its training grounds.
• 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 Landmark Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles began as a small royal hunting lodge. King Louis XIV turned it into a vast palace, and from 1682 it was the center of the French government. Today it has 2,300 rooms, the famous Hall of Mirrors and enormous gardens.
• Watch Landmark Pantheon The Pantheon in Rome was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian almost 1,900 years ago, as a temple of ancient Roman religion. Its concrete dome, about 43 meters across, was the largest ever built until modern times. Since 609 it has been a church, and it still stands almost exactly as it was built.
• 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 Landmark Parthenon The Parthenon is an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis, a rocky hill in Athens. Built of marble between 447 and 438 BCE, it has 46 outer columns and was decorated with carvings. It has been a temple, a church and a mosque, and today experts are restoring it.
• Watch Landmark Pompeii Pompeii was a Roman town near Naples, in Italy. In 79 CE the volcano Vesuvius erupted and buried it under ash and small stones. Digging began in 1748, and today you can walk its streets, shops, baths and houses. In 2025, 4,000,090 people visited.
• 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 Country Romania Romania is a country in southeastern Europe. The Carpathian Mountains curve around its middle, the Danube River runs along its southern edge to a huge delta on the Black Sea, and about 19 million people lived there at the start of 2026.
• 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 Landmark Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial stands at the foot of the Guadarrama mountains, northwest of Madrid, Spain. King Philip II began it in 1563, and it was finished in 1584. Inside its granite walls are a monastery, a church, a royal palace, a school and a famous library.
• Watch Landmark Sagrada Família The Sagrada Família is a huge church in Barcelona, Spain, designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí. Building began in 1882 and is still going on. In February 2026 its tallest tower was finished at 172.5 meters, making it the tallest church in the world.
• 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 Country San Marino San Marino is a very small country on the slopes of Mount Titano, completely surrounded by Italy. It is one of the oldest republics in the world, and its capital, with walls and fortress towers, sits high on the mountain. About 34,000 people live there.
• Watch Country Serbia Serbia is a landlocked country in the Balkans. Its north is flat farmland, its middle is wooded hills, and its edges have mountains, while the Danube River cuts a deep gorge called the Iron Gate. About 6.5 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Slovenia Slovenia is a small country in central Europe where the Alps meet the Mediterranean. Forests cover much of the land, the Karst region is full of caves and underground rivers, and about 2.1 million people lived there in 2026.
• 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 Landmark St. Basil's Cathedral St. Basil's Cathedral stands at the end of Red Square in Moscow. Tsar Ivan IV ordered it in 1555, and it was finished by 1561. It is really ten small churches in one building, each with its own colorful dome, and today it is a museum.
• Watch Landmark St. Peter's Basilica St. Peter's Basilica, in Vatican City, is the church of the popes and a place of worship for Catholics. Building began in 1506 and took more than a century. Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini all helped design it, and 800 workers raised its great dome in just 22 months.
• 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 Landmark Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in England. It began as a round earthwork about 5,000 years ago, and its stone circle went up about 2500 BC. Hundreds of people moved huge stones, some from Wales, and lined them up with the sun.
• 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 Landmark Tower Bridge Tower Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, beside the Tower of London. Built from 1886 to 1894, it has two stone-covered towers joined by high walkways, and a road that splits in the middle and swings up like two giant seesaws to let tall ships pass. It still opens about 850 times a year.
• Watch Landmark Tower of London The Tower of London is a castle on the River Thames, begun by William the Conqueror after 1066. Its great stone keep, the White Tower, is more than 900 years old. Over the centuries the Tower has been a royal palace, a fortress, a prison, a zoo, a mint for coins and a store for records, and today it guards the Crown Jewels.
• Watch Country Vatican City Vatican City is the smallest independent country in the world, just 0.44 square kilometers in the middle of Rome, Italy. It is the home of the Pope, who leads the Catholic Church, and it holds famous buildings and art such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.
• 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.
• Watch Landmark Way of Saint James The Way of Saint James, or Camino de Santiago, is a network of old pilgrim routes across Europe that all end at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. People have walked it for more than 1,000 years, and each year hundreds of thousands still set out on foot, by bicycle or on horseback.
• Watch Landmark Windsor Castle Windsor Castle stands above the River Thames, west of London. William the Conqueror built the first castle here in the 1070s, and kings and queens have lived in it ever since. It is still a working royal home, and visitors can tour its grand rooms and chapel.