The “wow” factor is high as you walk through the narrow uneven cobblestone alleys to suddenly emerge on the large square at the Grand Place. It’s the number one sight in Brussels, and one of the finest medieval squares in Europe. The tall Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque facades of the elaborately crafted guild houses tower …
The Romans knew it as Eboracum. To the Saxons it was Eoforwick. Then the Vikings named it Jorvik. Today we know it as York, England. In Roman times York became such a well-established political and commercial center that people lived on here for millennia afterwards. The city still bears evidence of all its eras …
On a clear day, Zurich proudly shows off its medieval squares, towering stone churches and spires, and the ever-present Limmat River. Easily explored by foot, Zurich’s main sights are clustered for one mile along the banks of the placid, blue Limmat River. With a walking tour, you really get to know the winding, narrow, hilly cobblestone …
You’ve got to hand it to the English—they do a marvelous job of preserving their heritage, especially in museums. But the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum has taken preservation of ancient buildings to a whole new level. In the middle of the rolling green hills of rural Sussex, about 50 miles southwest of London, …
In 1786, 34-year old Joseph Golding was cutting a garden seat into the side of a cliff overlooking the famous coastal town of Hastings, England when his pick broke through the rock. He gazed in awe down into a vast cavern. Golding had accidentally rediscovered a rabbit’s warren of secret tunnels and passageways that reopened …
With her atmospheric medieval squares and castles, and magnificent renaissance palaces, Belgium is Western Europe’s most underrated tourist destination. Foremost amongst Belgium’s extraordinary historic sites are forty-one ancient weathered gray stone and red brick abbeys. Today, many of these monasteries lie sadly in ruins, derelict victims of revolution, war and other turbulent social events …
Europe has many elaborately crafted medieval town squares, but none is as ornate or theatrical as the Grand Place in Brussels. The stunning 17th century neo-classical Flemish façades of the superbly restored guild houses on this cobblestone square tell about its days of glory when Brussels was one of Europe’s main centers of industry. After …
Kentwell Hall is not a “stately home”. But this large red brick manor, about 60 miles northeast of London, near the small Suffolk village of Long Melford, is one of the most interesting old English Tudor manors you’ll ever find. With unique Tudor architecture that, over the centuries has incorporated Gothic and Georgian classical influences, …
England has many towns that boast of medieval architecture and heritage, but few are as well preserved as Lincoln’s Castle Square, in the northern county of Lincolnshire. On one side of Castle Square, Lincoln Castle’s formidable honey colored, turreted stone walls disappear into the distance along the hillside like a long, scaled dragon. I …
Tucked away amidst the rolling green hills of Southwest England’s Somerset County, the small mystical town of Glastonbury has more myth and legend attached to it than any other place in England—including Stonehenge. Shrouded in Arthurian myth and rich in mysterious associations, there are early claims that St. Joseph of Arimathea visited Glastonbury in …