In the city of Kilkenny, Ireland, located in the South-East Region and the province of Leinster.

 Kilkenny City is the epitome of Irish cities with its “Medieval Mile” of narrow lanes lined with historic buildings stretching from the Kilkenny Castle to the 13th century St Candice Cathedral.

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(in the Nore Valley, at the center of County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the southeast of Ireland.) Kilkenny City is 117 kilometers (73 mi.) from the capital (Dublin) and 48 kilometers (30 mi.) north of the nearest city, Waterford. The city of Kilkenny, is a municipal borough and seat of County Kilkenny, Ireland, The ancient capital of the kingdom of Ossory, Kilkenny in Norman times had two townships: Irishtown, which had its charter from the bishops of Ossory; and Englishtown, established by William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, and was raised to the status of a city in 1609. The two were united in 1843. (The people of Kilkenny are known as “Cats.”)
From 1967 the castle was administered by the National Heritage Council, and it now serves as a museum and art gallery.

+ Kilkenny is situated at the center of County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the southeast of Ireland. It is 117 kilometers (73 mi.) from Dublin, Ireland's capital, and 48 kilometers (30 mi.) north of the nearest city, Waterford.

+ Many parliaments were held in Kilkenny from 1293 to 1408. In 1609 Kilkenny was granted a charter by King James I. The Confederation of Kilkenny, representing the native Irish and the Anglo-Norman Catholics functioned for six years as an independent Irish parliament, the first meeting of which was held in 1642. (Oliver Cromwell’s forces attacked the town in 1650, and it surrendered.)

+ St. Canice’s Cathedral, begun about 1192, occupies the site of a 6th-century church founded by St. Canice; the bishop’s residence was built about 1360. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary (1843–57) is a cruciform building with a tower. A Dominican friary, founded in 1225, is still used; and the churches of St. Mary and St. John date from the 13th century. Shee’s Almshouse dates from 1594, and Grace’s Old Castle, which was used as a jail beginning in 1566, is now a courthouse.

+ Kilkenny is now also a market center for a rich agricultural area. Woolen mills were long important to the city’s economy, and textiles and crafts are still significant -- as is tourism. Other industries include brewing, printing, engineering, and information technology.

+ Kilkenny's foundation began with an early 6th-century ecclesiastical settlement, with a church built in honor of St. Canice. Now St. Canice's Cathedral, this was a major monastic center from at least the 8th century. The Annals of the Four Masters recorded the first reference to Cill Chainnigh in 1085. The Kings of Ossory, O'Carrolls and Fitzpatricks, had residence around Cill Chainnigh. The seat of the diocese of Kingdom of Osraige was moved from Aghaboe to Cill Chainnigh. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, Richard Strongbow, as Lord of Leinster, established a castle near modern-day Kilkenny Castle.

In the city of Como, at the southern tip of Lake Como in northern Italy

 The city of Como offers a rich blend of history, culture, and architecture, as well as stunning natural scenery and gardens.

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(in a charming city on the shores of Lake Como, one of the most romantic lakes in Europe.) Its namesake lake is the major draw for aristocratic Como, where waterside gardens and palatial villas flourish in abundance. Long a playground for the wealthy, this city attracts a mix of tourists and Milanese fashionistas who plan trips across the lake region or to nearby Bellagio.

+ The city’s name was part of the term maestri comacini (“masters of Como”), applied to itinerant guilds of masons, architects, and decorators who spread the Lombard style throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. Their brick or brick-cut stone-faced walls, mortar, and other accomplishments are still visible in buildings more than a thousand years old. from Catalonia to Germany. The city itself centers on the modern Piazza Cavour, which opens onto the lake and divides the lakeside promenade into eastern and western sections. Notable landmarks include the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore (14th–18th century), the Broletto, or Communal Tower (1215), the former City Hall; and the Church of Sant’ Abbondio. Two of the oldest buildings are the Church of San Carpoforo, and the 12th-century Basilica of San Fedele. Several towers of the old fortifications survive, notably the Tower of Porta Vittoria. The civic museum has archaeological collections, and there is also a museum of the Risorgimento (the 19th-century movement for Italian political unity).

+ Sitting in a lush basin at the southern tip of Lake Como, this is a self-confident and historic town that was established by Julius Caesar as an Alpine garrison and Roman holiday resort in the 1st century BCE. The Philosophers Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger were born here, and Virgil (the Roman poet) thought Como, with its narrow profile and soaring Alpine amphitheater, the greatest Italian lake. The town’s medieval watchtowers were built by Frederick Barbarossa and its three impressive Romanesque basilicas rise from the remains of once-rich convents and are layered with priceless artworks.

+ Printing is an ancient art in Como, where Baldassare di Fossato printed the Opus statutorum (“Book of Laws”) of Alberico da Rosate in 1477 and the Vita di S. Giovanni de Capistrano (“Life of St. John of Capistrano”) in 1479. The two Plinys (Roman scholars) were born at Comum, and the physicist Alessandro Volta is commemorated by the Voltiano Temple.

+ A rail junction and tourist center, Como is also noted for its old established silk industry. (It is the site of the National Institute of Silk, with large workshops and laboratories and vocational-training facilities.) You can explore the medieval heart of the city, admire the Romanesque and Gothic churches, visit the museum dedicated to Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery, or enjoy a boat trip to discover the lake and its villas.

In the city of Innsbruck, the capital of the Bundesland (federal state) in Tirol, western Austria

 Innsbruck is the meeting point of the past and the future in the heart of the Eastern Alps.

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(on the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass 30 km (19 mi.) to the south) Innsbruck is a renowned winter sports center; it is also one of the most popular tourist and health resorts and winter-sports centers in central Europe. (The Olympic Winter Games were held here in 1964 and 1976.) It also hosted the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics (and the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012.) A rail and market center, in the late 20th century several companies began producing precision electrical equipment and electronics in the city.

+ Innsbruck is the capital of the Bundesland (federal state) in Tirol, western Austria, on the Inn at the mouth of the Sill River in the Eastern Alps. First mentioned in 1180 as a small market town belonging to the Bavarian counts of Andech, it developed rapidly because of its strategic position at the junction of the great trade routes from Italy to Germany via the Brenner Pass, and from Switzerland and western Europe. The bridge (Brücke) over the Inn originally carried this traffic and gave the city its name and its insignia. Innsbruck was chartered in 1239, passed to the Habsburgs in 1363, and in 1420 became the capital of Tirol and the ducal residence under Frederick, the duke “of the empty pockets.” Napoleon gave the city to the kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, and during the War of Liberation four battles were fought around Berg Isel, a hill (2,461 feet [750 meters]) to the south, by Tirolian patriots led by Andreas Hofer against the Bavarians and the French.

+ One of the most famous buildings in Innsbruck is the Fürstenburg, with a balcony with a gilded copper roof. Other notable landmarks include the Hofburg (on the site of a 15th-century ducal residence) and the Franciscan, or Court, church, containing the mausoleum dedicated to Maximilian I and the tombs of Hofer and other Tirolian heroes. The university was founded by Emperor Leopold I in 1677, and its library was a gift of the empress Maria Theresa in 1745. There are four major museums: the Ferdinandeum, with prehistoric, industrial-art, and natural-history collections and a picture gallery; the Tirolean Folk Art Museum; the Museum of the Imperial Rifles; and parts of the collections of the archduke Ferdinand II, in the Castle Ambras.

+ Coveted by empires and republics throughout its history, Innsbruck was the seat of the imperial court of Maximilian I by the end of the 15th century. Explore the Tyrolean capital's history at Archduke Ferdinand II's 10th-century Schloss Ambras, the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, the 15th-century Imperial Palace and Maximilian I's famous Golden Roof.

+ Tyrol’s capital is a sight to behold. The rock spires of the Nordkette range are so close that within minutes it’s possible to travel from the city's heart to more than 2,000 meters above sea level and alpine pastures where cowbells chime.

At the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey, located on a rocky island in Normandy, France,

 (on Mont-Saint-Michel, a rocky islet and famous sanctuary in the Manche département of the Normandy région, of France, off the coast of Normandy.) It lies 41 miles (66 km) north of Rennes and 32 miles (52 km) east of Saint-Malo. Around its base are medieval walls and towers above which rise the clustered buildings of the village with the ancient abbey crowning the mount. One of the more popular tourist attractions in France, Mont-Saint-Michel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. Saint Michael's Mount) is located about one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the country's northwestern coast. It is at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. It is 247 acres (100 ha) in size. People that live there are called the Montois.

+ The island has had strategic fortifications since ancient times. The name Mont-Saint-Michel comes from the monastery built there in the eighth century CE. The way in which the town is built is an example of how feudal society worked. At the top there is God, the abbey and monastery. Below this, there are the great halls, then stores and houses. At the bottom, outside the walls, there are the houses of fishermen and farmers.

+ Mont-Saint-Michel is one of France's most famous landmarks. Every year, more than three million people visit it. In prehistoric times, the Mont was on dry land. It is now a rocky tidal island. Sea levels became higher and erosion changed the landscape of the coast.

+ Mont-Saint-Michel is almost circular and consists of a granite outcrop rising sharply (to 256 feet [78 meters]) out of Mont-Saint-Michel Bay (between Brittany and Normandy). Before the construction of the 3,000-foot causeway that connects the island to land, it was difficult to reach because of quicksand and very fast-rising tides. The causeway, however, has become a barrier to the removal of material by the tides, resulting in higher sandbanks between the islet and the coast.

+ The island was originally called Mont-Tombe but became known as Mont-Saint-Michel in the 8th century, when St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, built an oratory there after having a vision of the archangel St. Michael. It rapidly became a pilgrimage center, and in 966 a Benedictine abbey was built there. In 1203 it was partly burned when King Philip II of France tried to capture the mount. He compensated the monks by paying for the construction of the monastery known as La Merveille (“The Wonder”).

+ The island, which was fortified in 1256, resisted sieges during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337–1453) and the French Wars of Religion (1562–98). The monastery declined in the 18th century, and only seven monks were living there when it was dissolved during the French Revolution (1787–99). The abbey church that towers over the island has an 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque nave and an elegant choir in Flamboyant Gothic style (built 1450–1521). The tower and spire, crowned by a statue of St. Michael, were added in the 19th century.

In the city of Davos, Switzerland, where the annual World Economic Forum is hosted

 “We do not want to just define issues; we want to help create solutions.”

-- World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international organization that convenes an annual winter conference.)
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(in Davos, Switzerland) Some of the world’s most prominent business leaders, politicians, policy makers, scholars, philanthropists, trade unionists, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) attend the meetings, typically held in Davos, to discuss global commerce, economic development, political concerns, and important social issues.
(the headquarters of the WEF are in Cologny, a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.)

+ Davos, a town, in the Graubünden canton of eastern Switzerland, consists of two villages, Davos-Platz and Davos-Dorf, in the Davos Valley, on the Landwasser River, 5,118 feet (1,560 meters) above sea level. The town is mentioned in historical documents of 1160 and 1213; it was then inhabited by Romansh-speaking people, but later in the 13th century it was settled by German-speaking people from the upper Valais. In 1436 it became the capital of the League of Ten Jurisdictions (see Graubünden), but it belonged to Austria from 1477 to 1649. After the 1860s it became a fashionable health resort, and in the 20th century,  it was developed as a skiing and winter sports center. In 1971 Davos began hosting the annual World Economic Forum. Scholars of globalization have used the term “Davos culture” to represent the elite group of international business, political, and civil society  leaders who attend the annual meeting. (Today, the town’s population is mainly German-speaking and Protestant.)

+ Davos (Romansh: Tavau, Italian: Tavate) is now a  popular ski resort and municipality in the district of Davos in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The ice hockey club EHC Davos has a stadium in the town.

+ Whether as a wedding church for the magical moment before the altar, a historical excursion destination, or a popular photo motif: the churches and chapels in Davos Klosters are always worth a visit. Anyone planning a wedding in the mountains often imagines a romantic mountain church or chapel in an idyllic location. This is exactly what wedding enthusiasts will find in Davos Klosters. The most popular three wedding churches include the one in the side valley of Sertig or the church in Frauenkirch. All 15 churches and chapels have one thing in common: they are suitable for a wedding and popular.

In the city of Ediburgh, capital of Scotland

 Edinburgh is one of the most popular destinations in Europe.

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(the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, the highest courts in Scotland, and, the official residence of the monarch in Scotland.) It is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. the Scottish capital is a very dynamic city and has much to offer all year round.

+ The city has a mild climate. Its proximity to the sea mitigates temperature extremes; winters are relatively warm, with average temperatures remaining above freezing, while summers are fairly cool. The easterly winds are often cold but relatively dry; warmer southwesterly winds coming off the North Atlantic Current often bring rain.

+ The city has been a military stronghold, the capital of an independent country, and a center of intellectual activity. It remains a center for finance, law, tourism, education, and cultural affairs.

+ Although Edinburgh absorbed surrounding villages and the Firth of Forth ports between 1856 and 1920, its heart still lies in its historic core, comprising the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town, built in the Middle Ages, huddles high on Castle Rock. The New Town, spreads out in a succession of streets, crescents, and terraces. The medieval Old Town and the Neoclassical New Town were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.

+ The city, located in southeast Scotland, is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth; this dream in masonry and living rock is not a drop-scene in a theater,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, the 19th-century Scottish novelist, essayist, and poet who was born in the New Town, “but a city in the world of reality.” The contrasts that make Edinburgh unique also make it typically Scottish, it is also a city capable of warmth and even gaiety. Historically, its citizens have also been capable of passion, especially in matters royal or religious. In 1561, for example, a mob spurred by the fiery Protestant preacher John Knox tried to break into the private chapel in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where Mary, Queen of Scots, newly returned from France, was attending a Roman Catholic mass. In 1637 a riot in the cathedral of St. Giles provoked a Scottish revolt against Charles I and precipitated the War of the Three Kingdoms, which engulfed the whole of Britain in the 1640s and ended in Charles’s execution. In 1736 the burgh nearly lost its royal charter after the lynching of John Porteous, captain of the city guard. Edinburgh Castle {shown here), dominates the city. Archaeological excavations have shown that the Castle Rock originated in the Bronze Age and has been occupied for some 3,000 years. Its first documented use as a royal castle dates from the reign of Malcolm III Canmore (1058–93), but successive phases of damage and reconstruction have been so extensive that little of substance before the reign of James IV (1488–1513) has survived.

In the city of Utrecht, Netherlands

 + It is hard not to fall in love with Utrecht, one of the Netherlands' oldest urban centers, and for centuries its religious heart.

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(in the center of mainland Netherlands, also known as Holland; "Netherlands” means low-lying country; the name Holland (from Houtland, or “Wooded Land”) was originally given to one of the medieval cores of what became the modern state and is still used for 2 of its provinces. The Netherlands’ southern and eastern region consists mostly of plains and a few high ridges; its western and northern region includes polders on the site of the Zuiderzee and the common delta of the Rhine, Meuse, and Schelde rivers.

+ Featured here is the city of Utrecht, the site of successive Roman, Frisian, and Frankish fortresses, it became an episcopal see in 696 under St. Willibrord. It was most prosperous during the 11th and 12th centuries, when it was an important commercial center. In 1527 it was transferred to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and became part of the Habsburg dominions. It was ruled by Spain until the 1570s, Occupied by the French (1795–1813), it was the residence of Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland.

+ Celtic and Germanic tribes inhabited the region at the time of the Roman conquest;a Germanic invasion (406–407) ended Roman control. The Merovingian dynasty followed the Romans but was supplanted in the 7th century by the Carolingian dynasty, which converted the area to Christianity. After Charlemagne’s death in 814, the area became part of the medieval kingdom of Lotharingia. Beginning in the 12th century, much land was reclaimed from the sea; The dukes of Burgundy gained control in the late 14th century. By the early 16th century the Low Countries were ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs. The Dutch had taken the lead in fishing and shipbuilding, which laid the foundation for Holland’s remarkable 17th-century prosperity. In 1581 the northern provinces declared independence from Spain, and in 1648, Spain recognized Dutch independence. The 17th century was the golden age of Dutch civilization. . The region was conquered by the French during the French revolutionary wars and became the Kingdom of Holland under Napoleon.

+ The Netherlands remained neutral in WWI and declared neutrality in WWII. It joined NATO in 1949 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community and is now embedded in the EU. Until it was overtaken by Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden age, Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands. Most prominent of the historic buildings is the Gothic Cathedral of Saint Martin, the construction of which lasted for almost 200 years, beginning in 1254. Now a university city, the medieval core radiates out from the Domtoren, ringed by a loop of canals, Utrecht's old city center has many structures, some dating to the Middle Ages. Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands until the Dutch Golden Age, when it was surpassed by Amsterdam as the country's cultural center.