Europe

looking along a "road" between two rows of small red houses with white trim. The road is grassy. At the end of the road is a tall white church tower.

Church Town of Gammelstad, Luleå

A perfectly-preserved example of a phenomenon unique to rural Sweden: a town shaped by religious and social necessity.

On a gray rock, dark red line drawings: several look like they might be boats, with people in them, or perhaps they're showing oars sticking up. A few human figures at the top holding items: a long stick, perhaps, a gourd or shield. Several 4-legged animals too.

Rock Carvings in Tanum

A collection of ancient petroglyphs dating back to the Bronze Age.

A solitary small house in a hill covered in short grasses, against a sunset sky.

Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland

An island known for its biodiversity, prehistoric ruins, and ancient agrarian landscape.

Side view of the cathedral, with the spires at the right and a side entrance in front. Incredibly ornate in typical gothic style, with gothic arched windows, flying buttresses and elaborate sculptural details around every available surface.

Cologne Cathedral

An undisputed masterpiece of Gothic architecture.

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.

A tomb stands on a pedestal in a niche, all of it painted white as well as the wall behind it. On top of the tomb is a pillar with what looks like an urn on the top and a relief of the person's face halfway up the side. Below the tomb, a figure leans on each side of the pedestal: both are women in white marble. The left hand one leans her elbow on the pedestal and her face on her hand. On the right the woman has her hands clasped on the pedestal and looks up at the tomb.

Roskilde Cathedral

A medieval cathedral in a unique mix of styles that inspired cathedrals throughout Northern Europe.

Kronborg Castle

A symbol of Denmark’s former power as it guarded the narrow entrance to the Baltic Sea. Shakespeare’s inspiration for Elsinore.

Two large rocks, each with runes carved into it, each in a separate glass-sided case.

Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church

The place where King Harald Bluetooth in 965 AD declared Denmark a unified country and announced its Christianization.

In the foreground, the edge of the Great Pit. Beyond that, a row of buildings painted light yellow. The one in the middle is larger than the others, 3 stories with a mansard roof (green copper) and a cupola in the center of the roof. On either side are smaller, simpler yellow buildings with 2 stories. Beyond these buildings is the cluster of the town with a church steeple and in the background are some low hills with what may be a ski jump on the nearest one.

Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun

Remains of a copper mining area that influenced the mining industry worldwide.

The painting is curved at the top, with lots of blue and green. It depicts a very fanciful version of Stockholm, with three grand-looking white churches with turrets and a jumble of smaller white buildings around it., along with scattered very tall trees

Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland

Fancifully decorated farmhouses built for special occasions by prosperous farmers.

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.

St Mark's Basilica has grand arches across the front and numerous towers and turrets around its central dome. A large plaza in front of it with tourists.

Venice and its Lagoon

An immense collection of art and architecture in this “floating” city of canals and islands.

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.

A river crosses the bottom of the picture. On the banks are two buildings: a white two-story house with a series of five gables., and a small white church with a simple spire. Behind them is a flat plain, rocky in places, covered in green in others. A rift in the land is visible crossing the plain.

Þingvellir National Park

Historically important to the nation of Iceland, geologically dramatic as well.

Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin

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

View of Prague Castle rising above the old city, as seen from across the river.

Historic Center of Prague

Famous for its astronomical clock, Charles Bridges, picturesque view of Prague Castle and the sheer beauty of the preserved architecture found all over the city.

Surtsey Island

An island with no people, where scientists can learn about how species colonize new land.

A row of standing stones on a flat field.

Heart of Neolithic Orkney

Remains of a neolithic society that predates Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza.

Sceilg Mhichíl

An early monastic settlement over 1000 years old, situated on an isolated rock island in the Atlantic Ocean.

A simple white house with a thatched roof

Colonies of Benevolence

A utopian experiment in reducing urban poverty by building planned agrarian communities.

17th-century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

Canals lined with beautiful old patricians’ houses and former warehouses from when the city was a busy port, receiving products from all over the world.

Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

Famous for its picturesque rows of windmills dating to the mid-1700s, and a great example of how the Dutch created the landscape of the Netherlands.