Maison Pelgrims, Brussels
Maison Pelgrims, seen from Parc Pierre Paulus. Photo: Mélioratif via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brussels, Saint-Gilles · 1905 and […]
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near the Monastic Island of Reichenau: The Carolingian Scriptorium That Produced the Empire’s Books, the 10th-Century Frescoes Found Under Plaster in 1880 and an Island That Now Grows Germany’s Salad
The island of Reichenau in Lake Constance, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, preserves three Carolingian and Romanesque churches from a Benedictine abbey that served as the leading scriptorium of the Carolingian and Ottonian empires. The church of St George at Oberzell contains 10th-century Ottonian wall paintings depicting the miracles of Christ, plastered over after the medieval period and rediscovered in 1880.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near Wartburg Castle: Luther’s 10-Week Bible Translation, Elisabeth of Hungary’s Roses and the Castle Where Wagner Conceived Tannhäuser
Wartburg Castle above Eisenach in Thuringia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1521–1522, creating the foundational text of the modern German language. The castle also preserves the Romanesque Palas of 1157–1170 and was the childhood home of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, canonised just four years after her death in 1231.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near Kernave: Lithuania’s Medieval Capital Destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1390, the Five River Hillforts and the Last Pagan Capital in Europe
Kernave, on the Neris River 35 km northwest of Vilnius, was the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century — a state that would grow to be the largest in medieval Europe. Destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1390 and never rebuilt, its five hillforts and buried medieval town were preserved intact under six centuries of undisturbed ground until systematic excavation began in the 1980s.
Festival ARTONOV 2026: performance inside the Art Nouveau houses — Brussels
For three weeks each October, a handful of Brussels’ Art Nouveau interiors stop being places to look at and become
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near the Curonian Spit: The 98-Kilometre Sand Dune Wall Between the Baltic Sea and Its Lagoon, the Village Buried by Shifting Dunes and Thomas Mann’s Summer House at Nida
The Curonian Spit stretches 98 km along the eastern Baltic coast, separating the Curonian Lagoon from the sea with sand dunes up to 60 metres high that buried entire villages in the 18th century before systematic reforestation stabilised them from the 1820s onward. The town of Nida on the Lithuanian section preserves Thomas Mann’s summer house, where the Nobel laureate wrote part of “Joseph and His Brothers” in 1930–1932.
Borgo di Travo — Val Trebbia
Travo above the Trebbia: the bell tower, the pines and the arched road bridge. Photo: Roberta Valla. Travo, Emilia-Romagna ·
Castello Anguissola — Travo (Val Trebbia)
Travo, Val Trebbia: the medieval castle of the Anguissola counts on the left bank of the Trebbia, home to the Civic Archaeological Museum – and to the tower where the writer Giana Anguissola spent her summers writing from 1948.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near the Caves of the Swabian Jura: The World’s Oldest Figurative Art (40,000 BCE), the Lion Man Found in Pieces in 1939 and the Ivory Venus That Preceded All Other Known Human Portraits
Six caves in the Swabian Jura of Baden-Württemberg contain the world’s oldest known figurative art — ivory carvings dated to 40,000–43,000 years ago, including the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel and the Venus of Hohle Fels. Both originals are displayed at the Ulmer Museum in Ulm; the cave sites are accessible by car from Schelklingen and Asselfingen.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites Near the Mines of Rammelsberg and Goslar: 1,000 Years of Silver Mining That Funded the Holy Roman Empire, the Kaiserpfalz Where Emperors Preferred to Die and 500 km of Medieval Water Channels
The Rammelsberg mine near Goslar operated for more than 1,000 years, from 968 CE to 1988, funding the Holy Roman Empire with silver, lead, and copper. The adjacent Kaiserpfalz — Germany’s largest surviving Romanesque secular building — was the imperial residence where Emperor Henry III chose to die in 1056, and the surrounding Upper Harz landscape contains 500 km of medieval water channels built to power the mines.