architecture

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.

Mont-Saint-Michel appears as a pile of stone structures up a hill, forming a conical shape with a recognizably Gothic church spire at the top.

Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay

A magnificent Gothic abbey on top of a small island in a bay with dramatic tides.

A short length of street in Provins lined with medieval-period houses. The one on the left is half-timbered.

Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs

A beautifully intact example of a medieval trading city.

A bridge leads to an arched gateway with a square tower next to it in Regensburg, Germany.

Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof

A beautifully-preserved and very picturesque medieval trading city.

A church, relatively simple, with a peaked roof and a square tower to the side. It is mostly white plaster, with some light yellow columns next to the center entrance and light-yellow trim.

Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox

A Spanish colonial river port with a collection of authentic and well-preserved colonial-era churches and other buildings.

A view of Edinburgh castle, with a sunset sky behind it. The castle has an arched entryway and much higher walls behind the entry, with rounded walls and crenellations.

Old and New Towns of Edinburgh

A medieval Old Town and a neoclassical New Town that harmonize beautifully and that influenced European urban planning.

Two large arches in the center serve as the gateway. Two floors above lined with arched windows, an extra floor forms a short tower on the left side of the gateway. The whole is made of carved stone that looks dirty.

Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier

A collection of Roman ruins showing the importance of the “Rome of the North” in Germany.

Looking down an aisle or cloister of the cathedral: gothic arches overhead, gothic windows on the left, tombs set between the arches on the right.

Burgos Cathedral

A magnificent example of Gothic architecture.

Facing the altar, with some of the side walls and arched ceiling visible. Every inch is ornately decorated with religious and natural imageray, as well as architectural features like arches and such. Literally all of it is covered in gold.

Historic Town of Ouro Preto

City of Black Gold and treasury of baroque and Portuguese colonial architecture.

The Church of St. Trophime in Arles has a Romanesque entranceway, shown in this photo. Rounded arches above a double door, pillars on each side of the door.

Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments

A grand Roman city and its later Romanesque additions, well-preserved in Arles city center.

A partial view of the Jeronimos Monastery shows a very ornate arched entrance, with lots of decorative embellishment around and above it. Along the roofline are filigreed crenellations and a corner of the building has a dome-topped little tower.

Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon

Two striking buildings from Portugal’s “Golden Age” of global exploration and seafaring.

A view looking up the drive to the castle. It stands on a hill, and in this photo 4 of the octagonal towers show, with two of them framing the main entrance.

Castel del Monte

An unusual castle expressing Frederick II’s search for perfection, leading him to design the castle around the number 8.

A nighttime shot with, on the left, the wall of a building with 2 stories, each a row of rounded archways. Beyond that, a stately-lookng building: white with classical columns lining the front. Between the two, a lighted sculpture: a high arch, lit white, with a large white star where it touches the ground.

City of Verona

A city exemplifying 2000 years of uninterrupted artistic and architectural development.

A small building standing apart from other buildings, the gatehouse at Lorsch has two stories. The ground floor is open, with 3 arches front and back, so, from this front view, you can see through the building. The upper story has 3 small windows. The facade has rather intricate stonework, with a checkerboard pattern of red and light brown bricks. A half-round structure has been added at each end.

Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch

A rare example of architecture from the Carolingian period.

Speyer Cathedral

A landmark of Romanesque architecture dating to the 11th century.

A row of houses on the other side of a river: very much a Dutch style of facade, tall and narrow with a variety of different roof shapes. Unlike in the Netherlands, though, they are painted in lots of different colors. In front of them, between the water and the buildings: outdoor cafe seating with umbrellas.

Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Curaçao

A colorful, dynamic and diverse Caribbean island capital with four distinct historical districts.

A round, 2-3 story structure with stone walls, an ornate Arabic-inspired entrance and window frames.

Cultural Landscape of Sintra

A fine collection of fanciful Romantic-style palaces and castles.

A very ornate building of stone: arched openings all along the ground floor, windows on the upper two floors that are all surrounded by decorative stonework and with iron balconies, and a small bell tower in the center top with three bells in a row.

Old City of Salamanca

An ancient city with stunning architecture in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

The photo looks up at the building, and shows the roof lines: it has crenellations, but more ornate than the usual castle crenellations: these have decorative carvings. the lower part of the building is painted pastel yellow.

La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia

A masterpiece of late-Gothic architecture, used as a trading hall in the silk trade.

High rocks like columns. Front center, low in the photo, is a monastery, in white plaster with a red roof, on a small outcropping. Behind it is a far taller rock, and at the very top right of the photo, more buildings are visible, looking tiny on the top of the rock. Mountains in the distance behind.

Meteora

Perched on high rocks, these monasteries served as places of retreat and prayer for monastic communities.

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.

The front of a palace: a symmetrical facade about 3 stories high. It's made of light pinkish stone, ornately carved and/or painted. The central entrance is arched, with a slight point at the top of the arch and a smaller arched doorway within.

Jaipur City, Rajasthan

A planned 18th-century walled city, famous for its pink architecture.

Closeup of the top of an archway and the wall above it. Every inch is carved with extremely detailed decorations : swirls and complicated shapes, along with some Arabic writing.

Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada

A remarkably well-preserved complex of medieval Muslim architecture mixing Moorish and Spanish elements.

On the left, the facade of a large building, perhaps a church, made of stone with a flat facade but decorative windows. Straight ahead, a view over the red roofs of the city.

Historic Centre of Oporto

A beautiful urban landscape with diverse historical architecture in a range of styles.

A view along a row of buildings in Hoi An, all one or two stories tall, with a flat-topped facade. They're painted in shades of light orange and are very colorful with chains of mostly red paper lanterns hanging down their facades and draped across and above the street as well.

Hoi An Ancient Town

An ancient and well-preserved trading port with traditional wooden buildings that show the traces of indigenous, Chinese, Japanese and European influences.

A pretty row of single story houses: all painted white but with bright paint of various colors around windows and doors.

Paraty and Ilha Grande – Culture and Biodiversity

Colonial architecture, traditional communities, and large and richly diverse nature reserves.

In this partial view of Park Guell, two buildings are visible against a much wider view of the city and the sea. The two buildings are brown stone with colorful roofs that make them look like something out of a fairy tale: then come to a point in a series of wavy shapes. The house on the right also has a tall spire in blue and white tiles with a cross on the top.

Works of Antoni Gaudí

Outstanding works of modernist architecture bringing together a variety of influences from the 19th and 20th centuries.

A row of houses, each painted a different color, mostly in shades of yellows, whites and reds. Each is 3 stories with a peaked roof. The line a wharf where boats are docked..

Bryggen

A beautifully-preserved area of wooden houses and warehouses, once part of the Hanseatic League international trading network.

A palace: not huge, but elegant. Two stories, plus another under the roof, which has a small cupola-like tower in the middle. The walls are yellow with white trim.

Classical Weimar

An influential cultural center in the late 18th and early 19th century as demonstrated today in the quality of its architecture and parks.

The Torii gate stands on two massive poles, each with two smaller poles flanking it. A lower, straight crosspiece near the top, and along the very top, a crosspiece that is slightly curved upward at each end. The whole thing is painted reddish-orange. It stands in a flat field, with a wooded hill behind.

Itsukushima Shinto Shrine

A well-preserved shrine dating to the 12th century and harmonizing beautifully with the surrounding landscape.

A bright yellow temple with curving roofs on each story, standing on the shore of a lake.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, Uji and Otsu

A set of 17 sites comprising culturally-significant religious architecture and landscaped gardens.

City of Cuzco

Imperial city of the ancient Incas high in the Andes mountains.

In the foreground, stone walls with people walking along the tops. In the background the modern city skyline with its skyscrapers.

Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena

An excellent example of colonial military architecture in an important location for Caribbean exploration and trade.

Looking down a wide path to a large palace: several stories high, it extends past the edges of the photo on both sides. Above the center is a large copper dome.

Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

An ensemble of stately palaces dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, along with their extensive gardens.

A pretty yellow building with two storeys facing on a pleasant square with greenery and a fountain.

Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca

A beautiful Spanish colonial city that shows successful blending of cultures.

A very narrow street, only wide enough for 2 people, with whitewashed houses on either side. The houses are painted blue up to about halfway up, and white above that.

Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage

A city that combines old and new: modern town planning that incorporates traditional cultural values.