At the junction of three rivers in northwest Hungary’s Western Transdanubia region, Győr is a city with a whole raft of Baroque architecture. The centre of attention is the Káptalan Hill at the confluence of the Danube, Rába and Rábca, where landmarks like the episcopal castle and cathedral basilica have been raised and then demolished …
In the 4th century Christianity flourished in the Roman city of Sopianae, now called Pécs in the southwest of Hungary. Ancient mausoleums from that time are buried under the modern streets of the city, and are all inscribed as a single UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of these chambers hold skilfully carved sarcophagi and vivid …
At the confluence of the Tisza and Maros Rivers, Szeged is a city that was reborn at the end of the 19th century. In 1879 a flood almost wiped Szeged out, leaving only 265 of 5723 houses standing. On the back of the catastrophe there was intense construction, furnishing Szeged with proud Neoclassical, Eclecticist and …
An industrial city in northeastern Hungary, Miskolc has endless beech-clad mountains in its backyard at the Bükk National Park. In Medieval times, Diósgyőr Castle, now inside Miskolc, was an retreat for the Kings and Queens of Hungary, and the newly restored monument puts on Medieval fairs and re-enactments in summer. Further west, the resort of …
The city of Memphis can be found on a curve of the Mississippi River in the southwest of Tennessee. A city famed for being the home of blues music, Memphis has a lot of modern history and culture to explore. Memphis is the city where world-famous blue artists like B.B King, Elvis Presley and Johnny …
Mykonos boasts quite possibly one of the most famous vistas in the world. The whitewashed buildings of Mykonos have become an icon of luxury travel, and it seems that every influencer, travel blogger and luxury lifestyle lover has spent a season or two brushing shoulders with the great and the good in Mykonos. Although the …
You can’t bring up Częstochowa without first mentioning the Jasna Góra Monastery, the most visited Marian sanctuary in Poland and a site of immeasurable national importance. The monastery chapel contains the venerated 14th-century Black Madonna icon, which brings in millions of pilgrims a year from all over the world. Częstochowa is completely oriented around this …
A city at the far eastern boundary of the European Union, Białystok is under 60 kilometres from the border with Belarus. The centre of this former textile city is compact and walkable, and was planned in the early 18th century by Jan Klemens Branicki. He was one of the richest men in Poland at the …
On the Brda and Vistula Rivers in northern Poland, Bydgoszcz is a place whose fortunes have been shaped by water. When the Bydgoszcz Canal opened in the 1770s it put the city on a Europe-wide network of waterways extending west all the way to Rotterdam. The most picturesque spot in Bydgoszcz is Mill Island at …
As a mining city, Katowice’s sudden growth in the 19th century was fuelled by its rich coal seams. The plush tenement houses of the Śródmieście district were all funded by this new wealth. But there are also innovative worker settlements like Nikiszowiec and Giszowiec, where miners and their families had a high quality of life, …