Europe Archives

Jerez de la Frontera

Jerez de la Frontera Walk through the old centre of Jerez de la Frontera on a warm afternoon and the air itself can smell faintly of wine, drifting from long whitewashed bodegas where sherry has been ageing in oak for generations. This Andalusian town gave its name to the drink, and the English word “sherry” […]

El Escorial, Spain

The grey granite Royal Monastery of El Escorial, with its corner towers and dome, below the pine-covered foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama

El Escorial, Spain About 45 kilometres northwest of Madrid, where the plain gives way to the pine-covered slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, a single grey granite building houses a monastery, a royal palace, a basilica, a library and the tombs of the Spanish kings. El Escorial was Philip II’s answer to a battle, a […]

Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid

The Sabatini Building of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, with its glass lift towers on the façade

Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid At the southern end of Madrid’s grand museum boulevard, a long eighteenth-century hospital begun under Charles III now holds what may be the most famous painting of the twentieth century. The Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, Spain’s national museum of modern and contemporary art, is where Picasso’s Guernica hangs, surrounded by […]

Royal Palace, Madrid

The south façade of the Royal Palace in Madrid seen across the paved Plaza de la Armería in late afternoon light

Royal Palace, Madrid On Christmas Eve 1734 a fire broke out in the old Alcázar of Madrid, the fortress-palace where Spain’s Habsburg kings had ruled an empire, and by the time it burned out three days later more than five hundred paintings from the royal collection had been lost. What rose on the same ridge […]

Park Guell in Barcelona: Gaudi’s Hilltop Garden, and How to Visit It Comfortably

The long serpentine bench of the main terrace at Park Güell, Barcelona, covered in broken-tile mosaic, with the city and the sea beyond.

From the long, curving mosaic bench at the heart of Park Güell, Barcelona spreads out below you all the way to the sea, and it is easy to forget that this playful place was meant to be a housing estate for the city’s rich. Antoni Gaudí’s hilltop garden is one of the most enjoyable sights […]

The Prado Museum in Madrid: Masterpieces Worth Slowing Down For

The neoclassical Villanueva building of the Prado Museum in Madrid, with its colonnaded portico of brick and pale stone behind a lawn and trees.

The Prado Museum in Madrid: Masterpieces Worth Slowing Down For The Prado Museum in Madrid holds one of the great collections of European painting, gathered over three centuries by the kings of Spain, and it is easy to come away from it exhausted, having seen everything and remembered little. The answer is to see less, […]

The Alcazar of Seville: Gardens, Palaces and Practical Tips

The Patio de las Doncellas in the Alcázar of Seville, with its long central pool, sunken garden beds and arcades of carved stucco arches.

The Alcazar of Seville: Gardens, Palaces and Practical Tips Step through the Lion Gate off the Plaza del Triunfo and a thousand years of Seville open up behind one wall: a Moorish courtyard, a Gothic hall, a Christian king’s palace built by craftsmen trained in Muslim Granada, and gardens of orange trees and pools that […]

The Alhambra in Granada: Visiting the Nasrid Palaces and Generalife Gardens

The Alhambra in Granada seen from the Albayzín, its red-ochre walls and towers on a wooded ridge with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada behind.

The Alhambra in Granada: Visiting the Nasrid Palaces and Generalife Gardens Seen from the Albayzín at dusk, the Alhambra looks less like a building than a ridge that has turned to stone, its red walls glowing above the cypresses with the snow of the Sierra Nevada behind. Up close, it is something else again: a […]

Apollonia, Albania: A Roman Port City Between Adriatic Trade and Inland Roads

A short row of re-erected limestone columns on an olive-covered hilltop above a flat coastal plain with a distant line of sea, an illustrative view of the kind of setting found at Apollonia, Albania.

Apollonia, Albania: A Roman Port City Between Adriatic Trade and Inland Roads From the hill of Apollonia, Albania, the Adriatic is a thin bright line on the horizon, far beyond a plain of fields and drainage canals. It is not where you would expect to find a port. Yet this was a city that Cicero […]

Via Egnatia: Rome’s Road Across the Balkans and the Meaning of Movement

Worn limestone paving of an ancient road climbing a wooded mountain valley above a river, an illustrative view of the kind of surviving Via Egnatia stretch found in eastern Albania.

Via Egnatia: Rome’s Road Across the Balkans and the Meaning of Movement Somewhere above the Shkumbin valley in eastern Albania, a line of worn limestone slabs runs between the oaks, the edge stones still in place, the surface polished by more than two thousand years of feet, hooves and wheels. This is the Via Egnatia, […]

Kokino Observatory: Archaeology, Landscape and Interpreting Prehistoric Skies

Weathered volcanic boulders on a hilltop summit above rolling uplands and distant mountain ridges at sunrise, an illustrative view of the kind of highland setting of the Kokino archaeological site in north-eastern North Macedonia.

Kokino Observatory: Archaeology, Landscape and Interpreting Prehistoric Skies On a volcanic summit in the hills of north-eastern North Macedonia, a cluster of split boulders, seat-like rock features and Bronze Age pottery has become a meeting point, and at times a point of disagreement, between archaeologists and astronomers. The Kokino observatory, as the site is popularly […]

Arabati Baba Tekke: Bektashi Tradition and Religious Landscapes in Tetovo

A walled garden courtyard with white-plastered timber-framed buildings and a small domed tomb beneath forested mountains, an illustrative view of the kind of Ottoman-era dervish lodge found at Tetovo, North Macedonia.

Arabati Baba Tekke: Bektashi Tradition and Religious Landscapes in Tetovo In the Tekke quarter on the south-western side of Tetovo, a walled garden of plastered lodges, timber galleries, a courtyard fountain and domed tombs holds more than four centuries of a Sufi order’s history in the Balkans. The Arabati Baba Tekke grew up around the […]

Lovćen National Park: Mountain Memory, Njegoš and Montenegro’s Political Landscape

A grey limestone mountain massif with forested lower slopes rising above a winding blue bay, an illustrative view of the kind of landscape found in Lovćen National Park, Montenegro.

Lovćen National Park: Mountain Memory, Njegoš and Montenegro’s Political Landscape Above the Bay of Kotor, a grey limestone massif rises to a summit crowned not by a cross or a cairn but by a mausoleum. Lovćen National Park, often spelt Lovcen National Park in English, protects that mountain, its beech forests and the stone villages […]

Sarajevo History: Empires, Civic Life and the City Where East Meets West

A river valley city of red roofs, slender minarets and domes ringed by wooded mountains, an illustrative view of the kind of setting found at Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sarajevo History: Empires, Civic Life and the City Where East Meets West Sarajevo fills a narrow valley along the Miljacka river, and almost every period of its past can be read in a short walk along the water. Ottoman mosques and a timber bazaar stand a few streets from Austro-Hungarian civic buildings, an Orthodox church, […]

Mostar Bridge: Architecture, River Crossings and the Making of a Balkan City

A slender single-arch bridge of pale limestone high above an emerald river between stone towers and stone-roofed houses, an illustrative view of the kind of crossing found at Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mostar Bridge: Architecture, River Crossings and the Making of a Balkan City Mostar takes its name from a bridge. The town grew up where travellers, soldiers and traders crossed the Neretva River, and the people who guarded that crossing, the mostari or bridge-keepers, gave the place its name. The Mostar bridge that stands there now, […]

Skull Tower Niš: Uprising, Memory and the Ethics of Difficult Heritage

A small cream-walled memorial chapel with arched windows and a modest dome behind an iron fence among trees, an illustrative view of the kind of chapel that encloses Skull Tower in Niš, Serbia.

Skull Tower Niš: Uprising, Memory and the Ethics of Difficult Heritage Beside what was once the road from Niš towards Constantinople, in southern Serbia, stands a small chapel. Inside it is the Skull Tower, Ćele kula in Serbian, a structure raised by the Ottoman authorities after a battle of the First Serbian Uprising in 1809 […]

Felix Romuliana: Emperor Galerius and a Late Roman Palace in Serbia

Ruined late Roman fortification walls with polygonal towers of banded stone and brick in a green valley ringed by low wooded hills, an illustrative view of the kind of setting found at Felix Romuliana, Gamzigrad, Serbia.

Felix Romuliana: Emperor Galerius and a Late Roman Palace in Serbia In a quiet valley of eastern Serbia, ringed by wooded hills, stand the walls of a palace that a Roman emperor built for his own old age and for his memory. Felix Romuliana, known locally as Gamzigrad, was commissioned by the emperor Galerius in […]

Niš, Serbia: Constantine’s Birthplace and a City at the Crossroads of the Balkans

A broad pale stone fortress gateway with a round-arched passage beside a calm river, an illustrative view of the kind of Ottoman fortress found at Niš, Serbia.

Niš, Serbia: Constantine’s Birthplace and a City at the Crossroads of the Balkans The emperor who gave his name to Constantinople was born not in Rome or on the Bosporus but in a river town of the central Balkans. Niš, Serbia, the Roman Naissus, is the place Britannica gives as the birthplace of Constantine the […]

Belgrade Fortress: Danube, Sava and the Strategic Geography of Serbia’s Capital

Pale stone fortress walls on a green ridge above the meeting of two broad rivers with a wooded island, an illustrative view of the kind of setting found at the Belgrade Fortress, Serbia.

Belgrade Fortress: Danube, Sava and the Strategic Geography of Serbia’s Capital Stand on the ramparts of the Belgrade Fortress and the reason it exists lies spread out below you. Two rivers meet at the foot of the ridge: the Sava, coming in from the west, and the much broader Danube, sweeping on towards the east. […]

Balkans History Tour: A Route Through Crossroads, Empires and Landscapes

A slender single-span stone arch bridge over an emerald river in a rocky gorge, with stone houses and a minaret on the banks, an illustrative scene of the kind of Ottoman-era bridge found along a Balkans history tour.

Balkans History Tour: A Route Through Crossroads, Empires and Landscapes The Balkans pack a remarkable number of historical layers into a short journey. Within a few days’ travel of the Adriatic you can stand in a Roman emperor’s palace, a fortified medieval monastery, an Ottoman bazaar, a Habsburg-era fortress and a memorial to the Second […]

Lake Ohrid: Deep Time, Churches and the Cultural Landscape of North Macedonia

A small brick-and-stone church on a cliff above a deep blue lake with a red-roofed hillside town and mountains beyond, an illustrative view of the kind of landscape on the shores of Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia.

Lake Ohrid: Deep Time, Churches and the Cultural Landscape of North Macedonia Long before there were churches on its shores, Lake Ohrid was already ancient. According to a 2019 study based on drilling into its bed, the lake has existed continuously for some 1.36 million years, and its waters still shelter plants and animals found […]

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Category: Europe