Central & Eastern Europe

View of Lake Ohrid, hills on the far side.

Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region

Of importance in terms of historical architecture and art, especially in churches, as well as for the unique ecosystem of the lake.

View down a long section of railway tracks leading to a wide low building with a watchtower in the middle. The tracks lead to an archway under the watchtower.

Auschwitz Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

A Nazi extermination camp, now a place of remembrance of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in carrying out their so-called “Final Solution.”

Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra

Two towns that exemplify vernacular urban architecture of the Ottoman era.

Monastery buildings, striped stone, arched portico, frescoes visible inside the portico.

Rila Monastery

A monastery complex from the Bulgarian Renaissance, important to the spiritual and social life of Bulgaria.

A huge palace, only a few stories high but very wide, with a huge flat plaza in front of it.

Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments

Peter the Great’s planned city of stunning Baroque architecture.

Looking down a ruined church with intact walls but no ceiling. Walls in stripes of stone and brick, archways along both sides.

Butrint

A little-known archeological site in southern Albania with ruins from centuries of occupiers.

A park bench in the foreground, a big view of valley and mountains in the background.

Durmitor National Park

An area of dramatic mountainous scenery, dense forests, glacial lakes and deep canyons.

A point of land and a cluster of red-roofed buildings, seen from above.

Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor

A beautiful area around the Bay of Kotor with authentic, well-preserved architecture.

The house is wide and low and has a long balcony and a flat roof.

Tugendhat Villa in Brno

An outstanding example of Modern architecture of the 1920s, designed by Mies van der Rohe.

A pillared building with a shallow pool in front of it.

The Great Spa Towns of Europe

Towns in seven countries where an early tourism industry thrived around natural hot springs.

A person follows a boardwalk along the right side of the picture passing, on the left, a series of waterfalls into a pool of clear water.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Stunning waterfalls and lakes formed by natural tufa barriers.

Saint Sophia Cathedral seen from directly centered. White with green domes and one central gold dome.

Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

An Orthodox Christian cathedral and monastery dating back to the 11th century.

View of Torun, Poland from across the water: a pretty cluster of medieval buildings.

Medieval Town of Toruń

An intact 13th-century Old Town and New Town – the former was a trading hub, the latter a craft center – plus a Teutonic castle ruin.

A view of the city from the water: market stalls along the pier, stone-built walls and buildings behind that, and a church tower peeking above the roofs.

Historic City of Trogir

A small city on an island showing influences from a succession of ruling powers.

Two walls of the castle courtyard: brick with several stories and Romanesque arches.

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork

A massive brick castle from an era of forced conversion to Christianity in eastern Europe.

View of the Old Bridge in Mostar: a high, wide arch, far above the water level of the river below.

Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar

Significant not for its history, but for the symbolism of its restoration.

View over the old city of Split: low buildings with red roofs, one very tall white tower.

Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian

A complete architectural ensemble built around the well-preserved ruins of a large palace complex.

Historic Centre of Warsaw

An outstanding near-total reconstruction of a centuries-old historic city center.

A grand building, with pillars across its entrance and a dome in its center, with a statue in front.

Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue

Significant because of its urban landscape and influence on European architecture.

A view of Český Krumlov Castle with the red roofs of the town in front of it. The castle is very large and has a round tower rising quite high above it.

Historic Center of Český Krumlov

An intact and very charming medieval city surrounding a large 13th-century castle with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements.

View of Valtice Castle: white stone, about 4 stories tall and symmetrical, with a small tower over an ornate central archway and wings extending forward on both sides of the central archway. In front, a round fountain.

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape

Two castles and the extensive grounds, gardens and outbuildings around them form a harmonious man-made cultural landscape.

Vlkolínec

A well-preserved rural mountain village with traditional wooden architecture.

In Vilnius historic center, a street view with what look like medieval era residential buildings along the street, painted in pastels. In the distance a church spire in Baroque style is visible.

Vilnius Historic Centre

An Eastern European city center with its original medieval street layout and architectural forms spanning centuries.

A huge empty market square in Krakow, Poland. At the far end is a tall square tower.

Historic Centre of Kraków

An important market town for hundreds of years and an outstanding example of urban planning, with a range of historical architectural styles.

View over the old town of Dubrovnik: lots of red roofs and the blue sea beyond that.

Old City of Dubrovnik

A well-preserved medieval, Renaissance and Baroque city inside extensive intact fortifications.

A round building with a semi-spherical green roof, surrounded by very precise formal gardens with low hedges and flowers.

Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž

A palace and three gardens, one of which represents the epitome of Baroque garden design.

Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak

A 4th-century tomb containing frescoes that are masterpieces of Hellenistic Thracia.

A cobbled street curves ahead, lined by simple two-story houses, each covered in plaster and painted a pastel white or brown.

Jewish Quarter and St Procopius’ Basilica in Třebíč

A historical Jewish neighborhood and a Catholic Basilica illustrate how Jews and Christians co-existed peacefully.

An image of Jesus washing the feet of the apostles. The Apostles are grouped on the right, int robes of blue and capes of red or white. They have halos around their heads. Jesus is on the left, washing the feet of a man who is presumably sitting, but the painting is rather unsophisticated so the man just looks smaller than the others, who are standing.

Wooden Churches of Maramureş

Elegant timber-built church architecture, filled with bright vernacular religious imagery.

A church, seen from the side and behind. The right-hand end (the back of the church) is round and brick, with Gothic arched windows in a line around the curve. To the left, the front of the church is painted white, and has a big square spire, also white except for its dark roof.

Historic Centre of Tallinn

An intact medieval fortified city.

Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc

The tallest memorial column in Czechia, a masterpiece of Moravian Baroque.

A row of houses in shades of white and beige, with pastel-colors in the decorations on the facades. They're all 2 stories tall with peaked roofs of various shapes facing the street in front of them.

Holašovice Historic Village

A complete and well-preserved village in the South Bohemian Folk Baroque style.

Gothic arches, flying buttresses, and 3 pointed spires on the roof.

Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec

An intact medieval town center and two fine late-Gothic churches.

3 houses in the photo, all with an arcade across the ground floor. The central one has ornate decorations on white on gray and an unusual stepped gable.

Historic Centre of Telč

A stunningly beautiful central plaza lined with charming pastel houses.

The top of Assumption cathedral: red brick with shiny silver-colored roofs on the turrets and the domes.

Assumption Cathedral and Monastery of the town-island of Sviyazhsk

A fortified monastery used by Ivan the Terrible in his efforts to defeat the Muslim Khanate of Kazan.

Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin

The only surviving Tatar fortress, with impressive architecture of two religions.