The Best Landmarks in Europe

Italian sites

Piazza del Campo in Siena is a shell-shaped medieval square paved in red brick, edged by the Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia. Prato della Valle in Padua has a canal around a central island and 78 statues of professors and artists, and Piazza Unità d'Italia in Trieste opens onto the Gulf of Trieste. St Mark's Square in Venice is framed by the Doge's Palace, the Campanile and the arcades of the Procuratie, and St. Peter's Square in Vatican City is enclosed by a colonnade that Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed. In Rome, the Vittoriano honours King Victor Emmanuel II in Piazza Venezia, and in Palermo the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Italy, stands on Piazza Verdi.

Squares

Grand-Place in Brussels is lined with gilded guildhouses and the Gothic Town Hall, and Place Stanislas in Nancy, France, is named after King Stanislas Leszczyński. Plaza de España in Seville sits in María Luisa Park, Plaza del Pilar in Zaragoza lies in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, and Place du Capitole in Toulouse has been a seat of civic power since the 12th century. Palace Square in St Petersburg is bordered by the Winter Palace and the Alexander Column, Red Square in Moscow sits beside the Kremlin walls, and Old Town Square in Prague is bordered by Gothic and Baroque buildings. Main Market Square in Kraków holds the Cloth Hall and St Mary's Church, and Zacharias of Hradec Square in Telč is an arcaded square of pastel Renaissance houses rebuilt after a fire in 1530.

Monuments, towers and bridges

Antwerp Central Station has a dome over its main concourse, and the Hungarian Parliament Building stands on the Pest bank of the Danube in Budapest. Palais Garnier, opened in 1875 in Paris, and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, both have gilded or stained-glass halls, and the Wrocław Old Town Hall in Poland has an astronomical clock. Big Ben stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, the Alexandre III Bridge spans the Seine in Paris, and the Anichkov Bridge crosses the Fontanka River in Saint Petersburg. The Motherland Calls on Mamayev Hill in Volgograd commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad, the Hallstatt Skywalk overlooks the village of Hallstatt and its lake, the Dalimil Lookout Tower stands on Větrov hill in the Jeseníky mountains, the Millennium of Russia Monument stands in the Novgorod Kremlin, and the Cordouan Lighthouse stands in the Gironde estuary.