The black 'Crow Castle', the oldest surviving keep in Japan, at the gateway to the Northern Alps.
The capital of Wallonia under one of the largest citadels in Europe, where the Sambre meets the Meuse.
A round fort of 1668, the Friday goat market and the date-palm oasis at the foot of Jebel Akhdar.
A Crusader sea castle, a soap museum in an old khan and the vaulted souks of a Phoenician port.
The Hwaseong fortress walls to walk in a loop, and the fried chicken street below them.
A golden sandstone fort still lived in, and camel safaris into the Thar desert dunes.
A Kremlin on the bluff where the Oka meets the Volga, and the longest cable car across a river in Europe.
The blue city under the Mehrangarh fort, the biggest and most dramatic in Rajasthan.
The dzong at the meeting of two rivers, the old winter capital, with jacaranda in spring.
The Hunza valley capital under Rakaposhi, the Baltit fort and apricot orchards on the Karakoram Highway.
A Roman aqueduct of 167 arches without mortar and the fairy-tale Alcazar that inspired Disney.
Slovenia's oldest town, a Roman settlement with a castle and the shaggy Kurent masks of carnival.
Ali Pasha's lakeside castle, a monastery island and silversmiths, at the foot of the Pindus mountains.
A castle on a rock above the Vah with a Roman inscription from AD 179 carved into the cliff.
The first capital of modern Greece: Venetian fortresses, a Bourtzi island castle and neoclassical lanes.
A Livonian Order castle, a cobbled old town and Gauja National Park for canoeing and bobsleigh.
Two castles face each other across the river โ Estonian Hermann and Russian Ivangorod โ on the EU border.
Rozafa castle above the largest lake in the Balkans, the bicycle city and the gateway to the Albanian Alps.
A town of stairs, a Mimosa festival in February and three fortresses at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor.
A 17-metre waterfall in the middle of town, a fortress and the last Bosnian royal capital.
The cherry-blossom capital of Transcarpathia, a castle and Europeโs longest linden alley along the Uzh.
A red-brick island castle in Lake Galve and the kibinai pastries of the Karaim community.
A church on an island in an alpine lake, a castle on the cliff and cream cake on the shore.
The town of a thousand windows: Ottoman houses stacked up a hillside below a still-inhabited castle.
'Here Portugal was born': the castle of the first king and a UNESCO medieval centre.
The Cathedral of St James built entirely of stone, four fortresses and the boat to Krka waterfalls.
Santa Barbara castle above Postiguet beach and the palm-lined Explanada, the Costa Blanca capital.
A medieval fortress on a rock in a canyon of the Smotrych river, the most dramatic castle in Ukraine.
The Castle of St Peter built from the Mausoleum's stones, wooden gulet cruises and the Aegean nightlife.
The July jazz festival, the Freddie Mercury statue and Chillon castle along a lakeside promenade.
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